Good Bye Flying Fish

Today was Vada's last day of her Flying Fish Water Therapy/swim lessons. Its kind of a bittersweet ordeal. It's kind of sad that the lessons are ending because it took Vada three to four lessons before she really started to warm up to her teacher, Celeste. By Vada's fifth lesson she would see Celeste and start pushing away from me and trying to get away from me is huge for her! (Ill tell you about her "Mama stage" another time.) 

This has got to be one of my favorites! This is a very big deal for Vada, she doesn't care to be lying in the water, she feels uncomfortable but today, she was much more confident.

 With the end of the Flying Fish, comes the return of Church which I have longed, yes, longed for. You see, Vada's lessons were every Sunday from 11-12 and our church is still on its summer schedule so we would of had to walk out during service to make it to her therapy on time. To be completely honest, I felt guilty about not being at church, especially for something like "swim lessons". I am one of the few parents that I know (other than some the families from church) who don't let extra curricular activities interfere with Church activities. Therefore, youth group, Sunday school and Church services are a must. Friends can stay the night here and go to church with us but my girls can not stay the night at one of their friends house and miss church. My girls aren't here every Sunday so when they are home I want them to be part of our church family as much as they can. That's why I felt so badly about missing church. No one said anything to me to make me feel bad, its just my own personal love for Christ and my need to have a relationship with Him and to be in His house. To make myself feel less guilty about it I told myself that this was therapy and truly, it kind of was. We were recommended by the Therapy Center and the only people who came to these lessons were individuals who needed a little help in the water, their diagnosis ranged throughout many different kinds of diagnosis's. Therefore, I considered this to be another form of therapy for Vada but now that it is over, I am glad to get back to church. Please don't mistake my guilt for not enjoying or even being grateful for these last six weeks of swim lessons for Vada. She has benefited incredibly from them and I couldn't be more thankful for her to have had this opportunity!

 Vada met another girl, besides her instructor, whom she really adored! Annalise, a young girl around Kiliegh, my middle daughters age. Annalise's gentle and kind spirit calmed Vada and like today, even helped Vada be more determined to swim when she was about to cock out fr the day --Check out the video to see how.

I thought that these girls were too beautiful and couldn't chose just one photo, so there are several that are very similar. 

Today's lesson ended with a pizza and ice cream party, which was a very thought gesture since this group had already done so much for all of the families but they topped of the party with gifts to a of the children as well. On of the gifts were fairy wings...

V's mouth is filled with pretzels in this picture.

This is my favorite one, im framing it!

Jasmine, Kiliegh, Justin and even Annette, Justin's Mom, came to Vada's last swim lesson today, for Jasmine and Justin this was also their first time to be able to come to one, both were excited to be able to finally make it. I am excited that my family comes together for things that seem as simple as swimming lessons. We all support each other when ever we can! 

Celeste, if you happen to have checked in on the blog than I want to thank you again. It seemed to me that you looked past Vada's diagnosis. You saw her for who she is and you saw her potential. Thank you for that and thank you for volunteering your time to help others. Today you said that you were going to school to become a grade school teacher, I would like to offer one piece of advice for you. Continue to look past peoples diagnosis. Individuals who have Down syndrome as well as other diagnosis are often looked at as cute but with little potential, especially it seems while they are in preschool and grade school. Our children, my daughter, needs more people to believe in her and her abilities especially when she is away from home and on her own. I know that you'll make a fantastic teacher, good luck on all that you do!