SLP Mommy of Apraxia

Tag: Apraxia and blessings

  • What can I find to be thankful for?

    turkey

     

    Thanksgiving 2014.  Ashlynn is 5 and Jace is 2.  I love these little guys.  This morning we made our annual thankful Turkeys.  This year Jace answered yes or no to my suggestions, and Ashlynn for the first time came up with her own with little difficulty.

    She’s thankful for her mommy (tear), daddy, Jace, and cousins.  She loves seeing her cousins and will get to see them today.

    I had her trace one of her hands after I had traced it in pencil, and she did a really good job.  We crumpled up tissue paper and glued it on to work on some fine motor skills, and lastly I had her write her name;  which is probably the one area that didn’t show much improvement from last year, but she’s trying and that’s important.

    Jace follows along beside her.  He colored his turkey and also glued on the tissue paper for feathers.  He quickly lost interest and went off to play.

    I like Thanksgiving for a lot of reasons, and the best being it’s a day where everyone is forced to think about what they are thankful for.  Gratitude goes a long way in fostering happiness in my opinion, and this day is ripe with it.

    Whatever the challenges one is facing, today is a day we can all look past those and focus on that with which we are truly blessed, because truth is, we all have things to be thankful for.

    I’m thankful for the small family Cody and I have created together.  I’m thankful for another year in which my kids can celebrate with both sets of Grandparents and aunts, uncles and cousins they know on both sides.

    For food in my pantry, heat in my house, and clothes on my body.  For careers we both love, for the children I’m honored to treat, and for a community of people who mean a lot to me that I never knew before apraxia wasn’t just something I treated, but something I’ve come to know very personally.

    For my health and the health of my children and their happy smiles.  For their snuggles and random kisses.  For our carefree dances and silly faces.

    For the everyday blessings that I take for granted.

     

  • The day I realized apraxia has been a blessing.

    The day I realized apraxia has been a blessing.

    Yes, you read the title correct.  I just called apraxia a blessing.  It took me a long time to get to this point.  I certainly didn’t feel it was a blessing here 2.5 years, or here, New worries, or here IEP on the other side of the table, or here Background and suspicions.  I remember shouting “I HATE APRAXIA” “APRAXIA SUCKS!!” everytime I watched my daughter struggle.  Slowly but surely though, the blessings started to outweigh the diagnosis; in fact, blessings started to develop out of the diagnosis.

    I was talking to a mom the other day from Georgia at Mommy Square, and she told me she has met a lot of friends because of apraxia.  It got me thinking that I have too.  I have a mom from Syracuse with whom I formed a connection because of our commonality of being mom’s who were ALSO SLP’s.  We shared our frustration at the lack of knowledge surrounding apraxia, and our mission to be educated on it.  I have a mom from Utah who has a daughter the same age as mine with apraxia.  We blog, collaborate, and fight apraxia together.  I met Sharon Gretz,  the founder of CASANA, the non-profit behind the apraxia-kids website.  Meeting her was a pivotal, inspirational moment in my life.

    All these moms have one thing in common.  They all are incredible, inspirational women, and they all go through extraordinary lengths in the names of their child.

    I am blessed to have found and to know each of them.  I am blessed to understand from an emphatic position what it is like to have a child with apraixa.

    I am blessed that I was chosen to be her mommy, because through her I have learned the true meaning of perseverance and bravery by seeing them through the eyes of my daughter.

    I am blessed because we have so many people in her corner.  Grandma’s, Grandpa’s, Uncles, Aunts, & cousins all cheering her on.

    I am blessed because out of the struggle has come joys I could never have dreamed of or experienced myself.

    I am blessed because though her dx could have brought distance between my husband and I, it only brought us closer toward the common goal of beating it.

    I am blessed because my husband confided one day that when he starts to feel bad about the hand Ashlynn was dealt, he always sees her overcome it.

    I am blessed because if not for her, I wouldn’t have set a goal to specialize in apraxia, and in turn, I may not have met all the wonderful people I have met, or been able to treat all the wonderful children I am priveleged to treat.

    I am blessed because I never take for granted one word, one sentence, or one song.

    I am blessed because I know other parents who feel the same.

    I am blessed because apraxia has taught me gratitude.

    I am blessed from simply being her mother.