Monday, December 12, 2011

Those sad moments

This past weekend the girls attended their first (non-family) birthday party. It was a karate themed party for a neighborhood friend. We got their and both girls were super excited. They began the party by doing some simple karate moves. Both girls were holding their own and having a ton of fun.

After about 20 minutes Abby started to look a little forlorn. She kept looking over at us and rubbing her eyes and face. Her flapping increased and she started rolling her head. The flapping and rolling quickly turned to tears. She came running over to us hysterical. Her arms had gotten tired and she was so upset and mad and embarrassed that she couldn't keep up with the other kids. She just sat with us and cried and sobbed.

It broke my heart. I wanted to cry along with her. She is older than many of the kids but significantly smaller and obviously with much less stamina. We knew things like this would be hard. These are stark reminders of how "different" she is.

Things didn't get much better when she had to eat the lunch I brought from home instead of pizza and cake. Thankfully we got her organized enough to play the last "game" which was "breaking a board" (with a little help from the sensei. She was VERY proud of herself.

Even though the day ended on a good note it still stood out how much she is going to struggle to keep up with kids her own age. Even worse is the fact that she is getting older and more aware of her limitations. It won't be an easy road but I pray it will make her one tough cookie.

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