Danny and Jerry headed up to Posen to go to the hunting camp and visit Aunt Reg. She is in the rehab facility and doing very well. The guys headed up after mass this morning and made their first stop the camp. They trooped around in the woods, hung out at the deer blind(didn't see anything) and just enjoyed the outdoors. Late in the afternoon they headed off to Roger's City to visit Aunt Reg. I had suggested that Danny bring his piano music in case the facility had a piano and guess what? They had a piano!! So after a bit of visiting Danny got his music and the nurses wheeled Aunt Reg into the dining room. What a surprise for her when Danny began his concert. The nurses station was just across the way and Danny heard them complementing him. He was very proud!
The girls and I went out to Wal-mart for a bit of Christmas shopping. I like to focus on the girls and their abilities and I tend to not focus on their intellectual disability. So sometimes it takes me by surprise and breaks my heart. Example: I dropped the girls at Wal-mart and scooted to Lowes to do a return. The girls each had their list, which they had made, and I suggested they each get a cart and start shopping. Molly had put Claire,Jamie and Allie on her list, along with the family and Nana and Aunt Reg. When I got inside, about 10 minutes later, Molly proudly came up to me with a huge Easy Bake oven that she had picked out for Allie! Oh was she excited. I praised her for finding such a cool gift, and gently mentioned that it might be a little young for Allie. We looked at things for the "Grandma's" and then headed back to the toy area. When I told Molly that Allie was too old for the oven she burst into tears, it was all I could do not to cry myself. She was heartbroken. But we hugged and I made a couple of suggestions for other gifts, and we moved on. It was a reminder to me to tread gently with her, she has a heart of gold and less understanding than I sometimes remember(or choose to remember) Father Karl had a homily today that was aimed directly at me..and one of the things he said was "when you are tempted to give in to the struggles of parenthood, perhaps with anger or depression, you need to say, "No, more love here!" and of course ask GOD to help you with this.
So that is my prayer tonight. That I look at the girls and instead of feeling frustration I say,
More Love here!
No comments:
Post a Comment