Determination

I have wanted to blog about this for quite a while, and I haven't because I wanted to understand it first, and quite frankly, I still don't. Human growth and development. This subject that I found extremely boring my sophomore year of college has become an obsession to me. I wish I understood it better. What I don't understand is......HOW....does a child lay in a crib for 4 years and not "accidentally" roll over one time, or at some point think to herself, "If I reached up and grabbed that bar, maybe I could pull myself up." To just lay there for four years and still be like a little tiny infant, I don't understand. And then suddenly, a man and a lady come and pick you up, give you a ride in a taxi cab, then take you on a long airplane ride to a house with a bunch of kids who hold you a bunch, kiss you a bunch, roll on the floor with you, cuddle you, feed you whenever you want to eat, and do a bunch of silly things to make you smile. And then suddenly you figure out how to roll over, and after a while you find the strength to sit up, and eventually you see that there are these things called toys that are fun to play with and you start pushing buttons to see them light up and the music play. And you find that it's even fun to pick that toy up and put it in your mouth! Then you realize that if that toy is far away you can put yourself on your belly and move your arms and legs and they take you to wherever you want to go, and that is called "crawling". Then it dawns on you that if you are in a swing, and you move your arms up and down, somebody will swing you, or if you tap your lips, somebody will feed you. I don't understand how these things have "magically" happened, just in the 4 months we have been home.

In the time that I have been sitting here typing, Ava has gone from sitting beside me playing with her toy, to crawling three rooms over where she heard her brothers and sisters laughing. I guess she wanted to see what the excitement was. Before I knew Ava I took all these things for granted. I don't remember being so excited when my other kids first pushed their legs through their pantlegs while dressing them, or REACHED their arms out and flung themselves into another person's arms, like Ava did last night to her Daddy.

I remember doing the initial evaluation for school services a few months ago. The checklist of questions that I was asked was overwhelming to me:
-Does she respond to her name? (No)
-Does she seem to understand the meaning of the word 'no'? (Well, she can't do anything to say 'no' TO)
-Does she put objects in her mouth? (No)
-Does she seem aware of what is going on around her? (Not really)
-What does she do when you put an object in front of her? (Nothing)
-Can she roll over? (No)
-Can she sit up? (No)
-If you put a blanket over an object will she look for it? (No).....And she's FOUR years old???!!!

It was very difficult to even evaluate her, because she really wasn't doing ANYTHING to evaluate. She was so much like a newborn baby. I remember feeling so awkward and discouraged during that initial meeting because I realized all the milestones that we had yet to accomplish. I think I went home and cried that day.

Well last night as I watched Ava play, I remembered being asked about her pulling a string to get an object (of course the answer had been 'no' at the time), and I watched her bending over again and again in her little chair to PICK up the object, and it dawned on me, This girl has determination!!! Look at how she works to get this puppy. I really think she is something special, don't you?

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