But if I cannot win,
let me be brave
in the attempt.
..... Special Olympics Athletes Oath
Here are Quinn, Amy and me at the special olympics right here in Lincoln Nebraska!
Here is Quinn working with Diane and it seems like she was more interested in watching herself in the mirror.
Here she is with her new Physical Therapist, Suzanne, and just check out the big smile in the second picture.
Wow, I don’t know where summer is going, but it’s sure going there fast! It’s been a busy week. Quinn went from not feeling super great last week, to doing so much better this week, and what a week we have had. We started off by going to the National Special Olympics, right here in Lincoln Nebraska. We watched swimming with Amy on Monday, and I teared up a few times watching how some of those athletes, as well as their parents, wear their heart on their sleeve. They show the right way to live! The athletes and parents both, are inspiring. One swimmer got to the starting block and turned around and yelled “I love you mom”, that got me emotional, the love in that building was amazing. The high fives, the fist bumps, the hugs, the comradely, the parents we met who loved their son more then anything and were happy to talk about him, tearing up and being overjoyed to have him in their lives, but when his event came up, they were on their feet, done talking and focused, and more then excited to go congratulate him afterwards. It was an amazing day. Throughout the week we also watched track and field, checked out the family center, and flag football. Quinn got a bit warm outside, but loved it, she loved swimming the most. I was a bit concerned that she would get upset because we were not getting in the pool, and sometimes yelling scares her, but I saw non of that, she was excited and so content to be there, as was I, it was an amazing experience that I wish so many people could experience! I was humbled and empowered by the experiences. At the same time I felt like Quinn was accepted with open arms and that was also an amazing feeling. We have been so fortunate to have acceptance everywhere, but being at this event with Quinn was totally calming and wonderful! What an amazing group of people, the volunteers, parents, and athletes, just amazing! I volunteered at bowling and was amazed, I had four gentlemen at my table and they were wonderful. I had to work hard not to cry from pure joy a few times, but held it together. There were bowlers of all kinds, some were in wheelchairs and I helped a blind bowler and one experience I had was getting the privilege of letting him know when he got a strike, and we would celebrate with all the folks around us. What an amazing experience.
Well other news, it’s interesting how life and therapy are following the same trail as our life. We are packing up with one therapist and starting a new journey with another one, with a few more changes to come. We had our final therapy session with Jen, and I am thankful we will see her a few more times with transition meetings for school, and I hope we stay in contact after that, she is such a good person and has so many ideals she shares with us, so I’m glad we are not ending everything, just therapies, so we will not have any more therapy sessions in our home, now those will take place at Riley Elementary during her school day. So to Jen we send out a big thank-you. We ended therapy on a super note. Quinn was standing with Jen’s help and started taking a step, then decided against it. Jen asked Quinn to take 5 steps to mom, then she could be done, and what a great ending that would be, so with help, Quinn worked crazy hard, falling over her own feet, but at the same time being so successful, and took exactly 5 steps then launched herself at me. How amazing she is, she did exactly 5 and worked so hard to get those feet to move to make Jen proud and was done. What an amazing girl we have! Sadly I did not get a picture of them, so when we get together next time we will need to get one.
Crazy enough we also just got a new therapist at Handprints, Suzanne, and she is working hard with Quinn already. I give her props for working so hard, as Quinn does not tend to work to hard for anyone new for awhile, yet I started seeing some sparks and what a difference a week makes, we all saw improvements in what Quinn was willing to do. Thankfully we still have Stacie and we are hoping Diane finds time to work Quinn into her afternoon schedule, as we have to switch times around with Quinn being in pre-pre-school this fall. We also will continue water therapy at Madonna and are crossing our fingers to get the same Friday afternoon slot since it would work great with our schedules.
As for house news, please keep praying, we are planning on getting ours on the market this week, and might have more news to share next week, we will see what God’s plan is for us. I’m glad I was distracted with other things this week to keep me from dwelling on that.
Blessings! Thanks for checking in on us!
Susan
No comments:
Post a Comment