Thankful Thursday

"Life if full of give and take.  Give thanks and take nothing for granted."

~Anonymous 

Happy Thankful Thursday!  I thought the quote above was very befitting for what I want to give thanks for this week.  Y'all know, a lot of times we take our small victories for granted.  It could be finding a parking space at the front of the store, $5 in the bathroom stall at Target, etc.  However, I've learned to truly live life taking nothing for granted.

As y'all know, JJ has been in speech therapy for two months now.  His therapist comes out twice week.  While she's here she's teaching us different communication technique like sign language, but she also works with him on getting him to actually make some sort of verbal communication, be it a noise or word.  And the for the longest, he had been throwing these major tantrums.  He cried so much at her visit after Thanksgiving that he cried himself to sleep.

And even in his sleep, he was still kind of sniffling.  That was by far one of the hardest sessions for me.  I didn't have a breakdown while she was there, but that night I let myself have an ugly cry y'all.  I just felt helpless that I couldn't help him not be so frustrated to the point that he had a meltdown of that magnitude.   That guilt that I've mentioned on here before wanted to flare up, but I didn't let it.  So, Monday's session got cancelled due to an emergency with his therapist.

I didn't sweat it.  I keep a prayer journal in which I write down my prayers everyday that I pray to God and myself at night.  So, I've been consistently asking God to please let us have a meltdown free session.  To just help JJ unwind and adjust to having this stranger all up in his space.  Kids he can handle but not adults.  Last night, really meditated on him having a great session today.

Low and behold, he did!  We had zero meltdowns.  No tears or anything.  He did really well and I could tell his therapist was shocked.  She's so used to him running to hide as soon as she comes in door.  But today God gave him a sense calm and at ease when she was here.  We built castles, counted blocks, named the colors and even got him to verbally respond to a few of her questions.  Of course, everything was answered with a "No!" but we'll take it! 

This is progress and I'm thankful for it.  It's a little step compared to how far we still have to go to get him talking but I'm still don't take it for granted.  I'll keep putting this in my prayer journal because truly the less meltdowns he has the more productive our sessions can be.  I holding on to the hope that an "I love you, Mommy" is right around the corner!

What are you giving thanks for?