Catching Up!

Enjoying some R&R at the Wilderness Resort!

Loves balloons!

Libi meets her new friend Lydia!

Libi is sitting by me just pounding away on her xylophone. She is doing so well with her sitting. She has begun to use her legs to turn herself around while she is sitting. She loves to be "walked". It is difficult to hold her hands above her head and walk her because her upper body is still so weak. We just support her under her arms and she will walk away! She loves to go up stairs as well. I know this makes her feel like such a big girl. It seems like every day she grows more animated. Today she was laying on the floor just giggling at me. There is nothing like the joy I feel when Libi laughs out loud!

She is really enjoying the pool this year. She LOVES to be in the water! It is very motivating for her to use that sign for "more".

We continue to watch these changes in her and stand in amazement at the miracle in this little girl. I will try really hard to post some video of her doing some of her latest accomplishments. It really is a delight to watch her!

Brad and I began our Chinese language lessons last night in preparation for Haddie. Libi found a new best friend in our Chinese tutor. We have never seen Libi be so conversational. She had so much to tell this young lady. It was really sweet. Will try to get some video of that as well.

Libi was kicked out of the movie theatre this week. It was a strange experience for me. We were watching the movie "Up". If you have not seen this movie, there are a lot of balloons in it. Combine balloons with big screen animation and you have one very excited little Libi! I hear Libi verbalize with excitement so often it is no different to me than any other child expressing their excitement. Well, to someone else in the theatre that day it was a disruption. Their intolerance offended me. I explained to the individual that my daughter was mentally handicapped. She replied curtly with an, "oh".

As I have processed this incident it has made me think how many times I am intolerant. Intolerant of the person who is driving too slow when I am late. Intolerant of the neighbor who visits too long. Intolerant of my children who walk heavy footed down the stairs. Do you get the picture? Then, how do I handle those situations? Do I approach them selfishly? Most of the time, yes. I look at how the situation is affecting me and tend to not allow any room for grace, patience, "Christ likeness". So as ugly as it seemed to me that someone would kick a handicapped child out of the movies it is no different than the ugly that I display on a daily basis when I am intolerant. My ugly behavior is still ugly behavior. I just tend to excuse mine. God willing this will open my eyes to this for more than just a millisecond!!

Again, just more lessons that I learn from my sweet Libi! She is a tool that God has used and continues to use to cut away so many rough edges in me. How thankful I am for this little girl!