Small Victories

In recent weeks, Ashlyn has been starting to get the hang of things that we have been working on for months.  It is so fun to see it and watch her getting things.  It is the coolest thing to all of a sudden one day just see her do something that we have been doing over and over.  There has been lots of me clapping, letting out excited squeals and calling Troy on the phone saying, "Babe, listen to this!"  Kyla also shares in the excitement, which is so great because she joins in Ashlyn's therapy sessions and sees her working on all of these things.  That girl loves her baby sister.

Ashlyn is almost 15 months and so about a month ago I knew I really needed to get her off of her bottle.  I also knew she very much loved her bottle so it was going to be a struggle.  She was having a tough time getting the hang of drinking from a straw, so we tried a sippy cup.  There was some strong opposition on her part, but I finally found one that worked for her (the Nuk EZ cup).  At this point, Ashlyn can drink from it just fine but still needs help holding it.  Here are some pictures of her and her new cup:

Getting ready to pick it up

Holding it with both hands....this was right before she threw it across the room.  We are working on it:)

Another major accomplishment is that she can now pick up food on her own and put it in her mouth with no help at all.  Before, Ashlyn was getting the food all twisted up in her hand....now she does is just right.  It is the greatest thing to be able to put cheerios on her tray and she can do it all on her own....here she is:

Picking it up

Putting it in

 
And enjoying it

Another area that Ashlyn is making great strides in is speech.  She is not talking, but is really responsive to her speech therapist and has fun with it.  We are teaching her sign language and there are three signs that she uses on a regular basis....the sign for "more", the sign for "all done" and the sign for "dog."  My favorite is when she signs "all done" because along with it she says, "ah da".  I was initially very apprehensive about the idea of sign language, but now it is just a part of our normal days and the whole family is learning it.  

I know some of these things might not seem like that big of deal, but we are celebrating them because Ashlyn has been working so hard and we have been working hard to help her!  From the day she was born, everyone kept telling us that she would do most of what everyone else does, it would just take longer.  We are finding that to be true and also feeling the great joy of watching her learn new things.

 All of that being said, I still wake up a lot of mornings with the first thought in my head being that Ashlyn can't crawl yet and trying to think of what I can do to help her (today was one of those mornings).  I feel the weight of her delays sometimes, but I am really praying that as time passes the weight will feel lighter.  Not because Ashlyn starts to do more things, but because the changes that need to transform me keep happening.  And I really believe that is what God is all about.....transforming us in the middle of pain and our circumstances to look more like Him and react more like Him and walk through it with us the whole way.  When we belong to Christ, nothing is wasted.  It is still a journey and transformation is still a work in progress, but thank goodness for a really merciful God who I absolutely know is always at work on our behalf.  And, for the record, when Ashlyn does start crawling, I bet you will be able to hear us celebrating from miles away!