She Did It!

She never learned how to skip, ride a bike, swim or drive a car.  But she managed to graduate from high school with two honor cords - one for National Honor Society and one for Modern Music Masters.  It's been a long haul, folks.  From the beginning, I didn't know if we'd ever make it this far.  She cried the first two months of 4 year old preschool.  Everyday, for most of the 2.5 hours she was there. The teachers admitted to me that she would have been kicked out if her older sister hadn't been such a model student for them.  We finally got her diagnosed at age 5 and postponed her entry into kindergarten.  Thirteen IEP's later and countless more tears (both mine and hers), she received her diploma, with honors.

"She did it!" refers to our family's favorite home video of her.  She exclaimed, "I did it!" when she was able to blow out the candles on her birthday cake for the first time, at age 5.  I have no idea why she never could do it before then, but that's just an example of the difficulty she has in learning new skills.  The look of determination on her face while we sang 'Happy Birthday' to her is priceless.  And it's what has gotten her through so many challenges since then.