AS LONG AS SHE’S HEALTHY.
That’s all we want. It is the mantra of every parent-to-be. We don’t care whether it’s boy or girl, we just want him or her to be healthy.
Our entire vocabulary shifted when Rylie Joy turned 20-months. She was healthy, yes, but she was not typical. She was functional, yes, but she was not thriving. She was perfectly fine, but she wasn’t. Was she healthy?
My first concerns were school and independence and long-term capacity for speech and learning. Seven years into this journey, I find that my prayers have changed. I can do therapy drills and we can alter medications. We can drive to appointments and we can monitor food intake. There is actually so much that can be done to assist the health of our children.
What I cannot do is make another child love my child, and it is the ache of my heart for her to be safe outside the farm gates. Somewhere after the grief of diagnosis and the passion of therapy to increase quality of life, my priorities changed from wanting better test results to knowing her heart was safe.
As long as she is loved.
Please let her be known and be loved.
[This is not the end! I’m so blessed to be a guest over at Making Us Whole today. Please click over to read the rest of the story.]
Apple pie, anyone? 
July 21st, 2014 at 12:56 pm
Cried again. You have just an amazing way with words. And also, we are not able to come up to Michigan this summer (I’m a wreck) because of my schooling. Ugh. I’ll miss you again!!
July 21st, 2014 at 1:02 pm
Love this. You know I have really come full circle in my journey with my Megan who is now 28 but yet still a little girl. If I all of the sudden had the power to make her “normal” I don’t know that I would. I cherish who she is now. Sure I still grieve all the limitations. Mostly of what that means for me. But she is loved. She is happy. She loves Jesus. What more could I ask for??? Yet, I still identify with the ache you write of here when people don’t receive her. Although most don’t have a chance because she is so social. But you can still tell the awkwardness of others who don’t quite know what to do with a special needed person. And on the other hand; Nothing makes my heart more full than when someone totally engages with and loves on my sweet girl!
July 24th, 2014 at 9:16 pm
O, I just loved this…so very true.