Day 2

As usual I am a day behind in actually writing this but that is because if I try to write after our full afternoons I fall asleep at the computer. Now I have a laptop and I am writing from my bed but that does not make falling asleep at the computer any better than if I was at a desk. I still get strange pains from the even stranger positions that I find myself in when I wake up. So I will settle for being a day late writing about things.

Day 2 of GOTR Wednesday February 22, 2012 was absolutely wonderful!!!!!!!
Yes my ankle is still hurt but Sidney went along with us today and he helped his little sister in the section of the walk that I could not do. He was out there doing his best Stitch (Lilo and Stitch) Voice and Buggy was being Lilo. He was threatening to tickle her if she didn't get going and she was giggling to the point that I actually thought that she was going to fall down laughing. I would challenge her to "Go get Stitch" and he would walk/chase her back to meet me. She did 1o laps which equals 1 mile and I am so so proud of her.

The lesson was really good. Larissa explained to the girls that their spirits were like this beautiful white light that filled them up with energy. She also explained that the world was like a cord that plugged into their brains and could either feed them with good stuff to recharge their light or gunky stuff that would drain their energy. She taught them to visualize unplugging themselves from the things in the world that were part of that gunky stuff and plug into the GOTR positive stuff.

Now my daughter is not the most observant person and she is also not the queen of logical reasoning but yesterday she had her thinking cap screwed on good and tight because later when we were talking about GOTR and Special Olympics both being good cords and that if she was having a bad day or she was getting negative messages from someone to just unplug that gunky cord like Larissa taught them to do and plug in her GOTR or her Special Olympics cord and remember that she was wonderful just the way she is. Then out of her mouth pops, "or I could plug them both in at the same time!" Ok Maybe it doesn't seem like it is that profound of a statement but for her it is. She gets it. She get that the more good stuff she plugs into the better insulated from the bad stuff she becomes.

If she plugs into being a Child of God, a beautiful young woman, and the best autistic person she can be then maybe when the name calling, finger pointing, and general discrimination that she will inevitably experience because of the harshness of this world comes across those high tension wires of society she will simply unplug from them and plug into the fact that she can love herself just the way she is as a beautiful Child of God that has accomplished being a Gold Medalist in Bowling, a beautiful little sister to a bunch of people that really love her and are proud of her and her accomplishments, and the daughter of loving parents that think she is a wonderful blessing in our lives.

She understands how to turn off the bad messages and tune into the good ones. Now the real struggle begins, reminding her of that when it is the person she thought was her BFF is the one sending the negative messages or the "to die for" guy. Well I'll leave that to another day to worry about and revel in the fact that for right now she likes who she is and has a really good idea of how to hang onto that feeling.

On to Special Olympics Swimming . . . . .