Reminder to myself & promise to my lil' happy girl.

Imagine, for a moment, that the only way you could communicate was using a machine or simple signs. Now, imagine that you had trouble controlling your fine motor movements. That means that even though you may know what button you want/need to push or what sign you would like to show, you sometimes can't because your darn brain has difficulty sending the message to those hands. Stupid brain. Right? Well, that's what our sweet, little Betsy deals with every day of her life.

Now, that she is 4 1/2, and becoming quite an independent spirit, it is getting more difficult to endure her fits of frustration because it is so hard for her to tell us what she wants to tell us. Difficult for her, difficult for her siblings, difficult for innocent by-standards, difficult for Jake and I. Just difficult. There is a lot of crying, a lot of grabbing, a lot of hitting (herself), a lot of scratching (herself AND us), and a lot of hurt feelings. Not hurt feelings, like, when someone calls you a name or insults you, but hurt feelings, like, you were sucker punched in the core of your being, like, your spirit has been defeated. I feel helpless, sometimes hopeless (I cannot lie), I feel sorry for myself and Jake, but mostly I feel sorry for her.

So, this is my public promise that I will remind myself and my (most often) happy little girl, no matter how frustrated I get, that Betsy is probably
4, 584, 937, 658 times MORE frustrated. And, I just need to COOL IT! And, upon reflection, Betsy is really a genius. Her brain isn't connected to the rest of her, like "normal", yet she has accomplished soooo much. She has to work that much harder to do what is second nature to you or I. So, I'm thinkin' she has like a gagillion times more brain power than we do. I know someday, someway, she will be able to "say" whatever it is she wants.

Thank you, God, for the gift of Betsy Jane!