"All good things come to those who wait."
Well patience folks has never been my thing. It's always been something I've had to work on. And we all know not to ask for patience because then God will give us something to be patient about!;)
Patience wasn't something that I really had to practice until Bennett came into our lives. Let me just tell you, when you have a child with special needs, you WILL learn to be patient. You have to or you'll go crazy. There is lots of waiting and hoping and praying and just when you've pulled out your last hair... the child decides it's time. And then there's just nothing to describe that feeling. Let's just say... you learn to celebrate the little things.
Every.Little.Thing.
Because the little things are HUGE. As I've said before, you just want to shout it from the roof tops!
Recently Bennett has done something I/we have waited for, for a looong time. Something that has always been on my mind, nagging at me and annoying me. I was so over it! Prayed about it. Complained about it. Stressed over it. Sometimes cried about it. I haven't written about it in quite a while on the blog because frankly I had given up hope because there were absolutely no signs that this would happen and zero progress in 2 years of therapy…lots of therapy and lots of different therapists.
Well God stepped in (he'd been there all along but I guess it just wasn't the right time;)) and with a lot of prayer, the help of a wonderful school called Frankie Lemmon and an awesome private OT, Bennett finally did it. Out of the blue, look what my little man has finally decided to do…..(no idea why it's sideways and I can't fix it but you get the gist).
He just started eating real food with his hands one day. We still need to work on the chewing mechanism because I think he swallows a lot of things whole but this is a big step for him. Anyone that has dealt with feeding issues understands this.
But it doesn't stop there! Since Bennett has started school: he knows most of his colors, shapes, can count to ten (with prompting) and has tons of words and loves to repeat everything we say, although it may just be the last word we say;)! We're working on putting 2 and 3 words together and his teachers have this very simple way to do that. They showed me how it worked and within one try Bennett did it! Putting 2 words together takes way more coordination than I ever knew because it comes so easy for most kids. I'm so excited to work on that with him and I'll have to share! But it could take time and patience;)
It's simple things, I know. But it's different for a child with Down syndrome. They CAN learn all these things, it just takes more work and a TON of patience. But it's all worth it! Bennett has taught me so much in his 3 years that I never knew or cared to pay attention to in my 30 years before he arrived. I absolutely love watching him accomplish things because I know he worked so darn hard to get there.
So patience is definitely a virtue, a virtue I've never really possessed without a lot work. But if God does give us things to be patient about when we ask for patience, I'll gladly take the gift of Bennett and all the milestones that he's accomplished. I know there's so much more to come!
Bennett is totally worth the wait.
