A Beautiful Thing and Priceless Experience!

Surprise Blessings: You Gotta Lov’m!

I have to tell you about an unexpected surprise blessing I experienced recently…

Early this month, I had a stretch of being a full-time nanny for a little over a week.

It was for a really great family I’d also worked part-time for last school year  – and they asked me if I could help them out some again. The dad is an author of several books and in full-time ministry. So he had some speaking engagements that was going to take him out of town.

All their children are extremely talented and gifted. It’s always fun to spend time with them just to have some of their energy and creativity wash off on me.

Well the youngest, is a 2yr old little girl who was born with spina bifida.

(Her parents have a very encouraging and heartfelt story of their daughter’s birth and life. Her father wrote a book on their experience and why they chose life and did not take the doctors offer to terminate the pregnancy.)

A little more background…last school year when I was there the little girl had a cast on almost the whole time. It went from her chest down to her toes! So obviously she was very limited in her activity and unable to get around and play.

I would think having a little more than half your body in a cast might dampen your spirit? It would mine!

But No: Not this little girl! She always had the sweetest smile and the ability to light up a room.

It was so humbling for me to know her and spend time with her (and still is). I had such a difficult year last year and was battling a number of challenges…

but every time I would go to their house, and see this little girl in her cast, and she’d still have the sweetest smile and happiest spirit…I would have to instantly reconsider what I was allowing myself to stress over and be unhappy over.

Okay, well fast forward to this month…

She now has most the surgeries complete on her hips, legs and knees. So no more cast. She has freedom to get around and it is amazing how well she does! She has leg braces to help her while she’s learning to walk.

The other thing she is learning to do is talk. She would say “ma” & “da” along with a number of other sounds and jabbering, but not really on demand words yet.

Well – I was blessed to have her start saying some words on demand while I was with her this month!

We just had a fun time during the week playing and being silly. I also got to hear more of the sounds and jabberings she was doing and I would copy her all the time. I would also act like her baby doll was talking and copying my words – and she thought that was pretty funny…

Anyway, the one day I was trying to get her to say “up” it sounded like she did. And then later in the day I was almost positive she started to say another word.

The next morning when getting her out of the crib I asked her to say “up” and this time she for sure did! And later she put her finger to her mouth and said “li” for light when she wanted to flip the light switch.

The BEST PART was getting her up after her nap time. She said “up” and then sat back down in her crib and started laughing…

and she kept laughing…

and would open her mouth like she was going to say “up” but couldn’t even talk because she was laughing so hard. That kind of deep belly laugh that makes your stomach hurt. 🙂 🙂 🙂

It was just the Most Beautiful, Precious thing!

For a good 3-5 minutes we just kept laughing. We were looking at each other through the crib bars and we would lean toward each other and open our mouths like we were going to say “up” and then bust out laughing again, unable to say a word…

And I can’t say for sure why she was laughing so hard, but I really think it was from a new level of understanding of the power she had to be able to speak and control what she was saying.

I wish I could describe the situation better, but it was one of those “you had to be there” times.

I’ll never forget it – I feel privileged to have been there that week and it was such a beautiful experience and blessing for me! Thanks for letting me share it with you.

And I thank God that He is helping this little girl grow and develop by leaps and bounds! If you would pray for her also it would be appreciated, as she still has some upcoming surgeries… Thank you.

Cheers,
Brenda

P.S. You can read this family’s story of facing the reality of having a child with spina bifida and choosing life.  “We Chose Life: Why You Should Too” by Anthony Horvath is available now at Amazon.