Thursday, September 12, 2013

First Week of School and Hope in Walker!!!

The girls started school this past week!  We were praying and hoping to step it up this year in Hope's schooling and try to start challenging her academically as she was able, as well as encourage her to interact with her peers more, without help from a supervising adult!  Well. . . 

Click on "Read more" to continue. . .

Well. . . God's response to your many prayers and ours was very loud and clear through not only the heart attitude and determination that God is giving Hope, but also in the abilities that God is continuing to give Hope!  Trevor and I have suddenly realized just how far she has come over the summer by what she is doing in school right now!  : )  It's awesome. . . God is AWESOME!!!  And we are so thrilled to share the marvelous things that God continues to do in our precious girlies life!

The first day of school, both girls were super excited to go!  Here is a couple cute pictures of them, before leaving for school that first day. . .




Notice how Hope has her arm around Gabriella!!!
This was so precious to Trev and I, as this was something that Hope used to do almost every time we took a picture of them.  We didn't ask her to do this for this picture. . . I just told them that I wanted a picture of their matching backpacks on them.  Then as I got ready to take the picture, Hope reached her arm out and found her sister's shoulder, to put her arm around her Gabi girl!!!  TOTALLY PRECIOUS for us!!!
Thank you Lord, for your sweet small blessings each and every day, that bring us to such depths of gratitude for who YOU are and all that YOU have done!!!

I was invited by the teachers to come into the two Grade 6 classrooms to share a bit with each class of what God was doing in Hope's life and continued recovery since they had last seen her in June.  I asked Hope to help me, and she agreed, surprisingly, as she is usually not a big fan of speaking in front of a group of people.  I was excited to share with the kids, but got to share much less than I had planned!  Why, you may ask. . . for a most delightful reason. . . Hope!!!  I told Trev that it was like setting up to tell a joke and half way through having someone come in and finish for you and get to give the punch line, every time!  Hee hee!!!  Of course, this was a true delight to my heart to see Hope so excited to share with her classmates what God is doing in her life and how He continues to further her recovery from this devastating brain injury!  God enabled her to do a great job of describing things to her classmate, including why she is blind. . . it's not an eye problem but a brain problem and she would put her hand on the lower back of her head to show them where her brain isn't working right!

After school, she was disappointed that she didn't get any homework on the first day.  So after the second day, she did over an hour of homework!  She excitedly took on the challenge to memorize her class' Scripture passage, Matthew 5:1-4.  She already has it memorized perfectly and recited to the teacher!!!  It's not due until the end of week!  Here is a video of her reciting her verse. . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ykYGhp-ehM
 

She was challenged to do 5 of the 20 spelling words, due the end of this week.  She has already done 8 words!  And not easy ones. . . aerodynamics, air resistance, barbules, and atmosphere are a few!  She's learning definitions and dictating her own sentences, too!  Hope started a Grade 2 math curriculum and is flying through it. . . it's her "treat" to do when she finished all her other homework!  Exciting eh!!!  We are totally amazed at what God is continuing to do in our little girl's body, heart and mind!  It is a true marvel to observe His hand at work!!!

And after homework, you'll hear Hope say, "Okay, dad!  Now it's time to do my walking in the walker!"  She's super disappointed if we don't fit it in!  Here's a picture and little video of her hard at work in her walker!



Hope in her new walker!!!

Here are a couple of videos of Hope walking on her birthday to show her grandparents what she's doing.  These videos were taken in the last couple of minutes of her walking and so she's pretty tired.  She is able to have her best coordination in walking at the beginning.  This shows the struggle that coordination presents for Hope, especially when she's tired, but it still gives a pretty good picture of where her current skills are at.  The first video shows her trying to get her feet flat on the ground and working at staying on her feet or bearing all her weight, rather than resting on the floating seat of the walker.  At the end of the second video you can really hear how hard she is huffing and puffing, working so hard!  As well, you can hear her giving her dad the gears to make sure that she does a full 10 minutes each day!  Here are the links below:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SohOZHKk2




Here is the second link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTJmyddBxPQ

Thank you for your continued prayers for our sweet Hope!  We are so blessed to continue to be held up in prayer by so many faithful prayer warriors!  You are loved, dear ones!!!

5 comments:

  1. hokey dina! Fantastic job sweet Hopey! I hope you girls had a great first week! I will see you soon!

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  2. Heather, Trevor, Hope and Gabi
    How my heart swells with hearing Hope recite her memory verse! God is so good! Thank you for sharing with us!

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  3. Good job Hope - you worked so hard. :)

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  4. I am overjoyed at hearing you reciting your memory verse so well, Hope. And to know that you are so excited to be working on math. Way to go, Sweet Girl! I love your determination over walking with your new walker. That walker definitely fits you better than the first one we tried. You will be off and running before we know it with how much you are practicing. Hugs!

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  5. Awe.. Sweet Peacocks. We love and miss you all! Thanks so much for this blog. We are so blessed to see each one of you. The kids ask about you all regularly. Scott, Jesse and Cali miss playing with Hope and Gabi at our old apartment (Villa la Paz) in California. Do you girls remember them? We wish we could be next door again. Much much love, The Allens

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