5p- | Lessons from my daughter

When I was pregnant, I was hoping for a healthy little baby girl!

I had those images in my head and in my heart. My daughter and I walking, chatting, going to the book store and sitting around a coffee shop with our books and magazines. My baby would turn into a beautiful young lady, polite and respectful, she would love me the way I love my mom. We would go shopping and we would travel the world together…. She would probably dance, be really good at school and grow-up to be an amazing woman…

After Emily was diagnosed, I had to fill some paperwork detailing her handicap / her disability. I looked at the form, all she could do was see and hear… She was severely affected physically, mentally and her gross & fine motor skills were non-existent… I knew I had to sign the form and send it to the government but I sat there and looked at it for days…. I didn’t want to admit it to myself.

Emily didn’t die when she was diagnosed but my dreams did! All of them were shattered!

Regularly I had to go back to those calls that changed my life and remind myself that I could do this, that all I had to do was look at my daughter for who she was not for who she could have been. I had to adjust my dreams.

November 2012, my husband, daughter and I traveled to Bermudas! While at the Fairmont Hamilton, I noticed they were offering afternoon tea… Emily likes tea, her Nana introduced her to tea.

I asked Emily if she wanted to come to afternoon tea with me. Explained that it would be like pretend tea but for real….. we would pick our tea and tiny sandwiches, we would wear our pretty dresses and try to drink tea with our pinky up… She agreed to try.

I reserved a table, we got all dolled up, said goodbye to daddy and we went for tea!

Most people looking at us saw a mother-daughter (and a doll) having tea. I saw a dream, a dream I wasn’t even allowing myself to have anymore. Emily picked a jasmine butterfly tea and I can’t remember what I picked. We took both trays of sandwiches and every other little finger food they would bring us.

We tried everything, some things she liked while others she didn’t. She had an opinion, on the tea and the food. She had an opinion on the live music. We had small chit-chat and she tried drinking with her pinky up… We laughed!

I discretely wiped tears from my eyes….. I didn’t want Emily to see how happy I was, I didn’t want to confuse her.

Sometimes, our dreams are so big, so far away that we can’t imagine getting there…. I had given up on this dream of enjoying a beverage with Emily while talking…… When it happened, I was speechless. I wanted to hug her and tell everybody around us how special this moment was but I didn’t. It was our moment.

I do have that daughter from my earlier dreams, she is polite, she adores me, she is beautiful inside and out. She is determine to learn and work hard on learning to read and understand math.

But the most important thing is that she is herself and has opinions…..

Do you allow your kids to be themselves and build their own opinions? Do you allow them to be kids and to dream?

Find more about about Cri du Chat syndrome at 5p- Society

Emily has a her own page in the family stories , you can find it here: Emily

If you want short updates and timely pictures of the little things that are happening in our life, please like and follow Lessons from my daughter‘s page on Facebook.

You can also find me on Twitter at @plebrass

I am on Pinterest… one day I will figure out what to do there other than finding cool recipes

I’ve told you about Emily’s desire to cheer twice already.

Fall 2013 : To be a cheerleader

Summer 2015 : Cheer Bows

This past summer, she found her place at Cheer Olympia and when fall arrived, a new team was formed!

The Pillars

thumb_IMG_4832_1024

Our team, has 5 athletes, 3 coaches and 1 awesome filler 🙂

Our athletes are awesome and my fear on Sunday morning was that the other athletes and their families might not see how awesome our girls are!

The music played at a lower volume as to not overwhelm our girls.

The crowd was a little quieter to help them as well.

But that didn’t stop the other cheer teams from clapping and cheering for our team. Soon enough, the crowd joined in too!

Next time, I say we crank the volume on their music 🙂

After their first go at it, our girls sat back down and cheered for the other teams.

thumb_IMG_4653_1024

Each team was performing twice!

Here are a couple of things you would not know by looking at them.

After their first number, one of our athlete had what her mom calls a “small seizure”. I don’t know how familiar you are with seizures but in my mind (someone who doesn’t know seizures), there is no such thing as small seizures. It’s a seizure or a big seizure. Well, would you believe that our girl was back on the mat for their second appearance? And she rocked it!
One of the other mom sitting next to me who was also emotional was telling me, “would you believe it took 2 years of physio therapy for her to walk?”. She was talking about her daughter.
This is also true of Emily, doctors and therapists agreed she would never walk.

If you were to ask me what diagnosis the other girls on the team have, I truly can’t tell you as I have never asked their parents and I will not asked them as to me, they are Emily’s team! None of them are their diagnosis and all of them are hard workers!

Those girls are amazing!

After the showcase, most of us went for a late lunch. One team! Which I suspect will soon be one big family!

It took at least 6 years of trying dance classes, cheer groups and looking at everything out there…. Emily never gave up on her dream to be a cheerleader.

thumb_IMG_4902_1024

So today, Emily is a cheerleader, with the bow, the hair, the make-up, the uniform, the team jacket and a team where she is accepted, respected and celebrated!

A team where each member is accepted, respected and celebrated!

Emily is a cheerleader.

Thank you Olympia cheerleading

Thank you Colleen, Lorraine, Celine, Megan and Chloe!