Gratitude

I wrote this poem when my ten year old was four to thank her doctors, teachers, physical, speech and occupational therapists, audiologists, teachers, educational assistants, school administrators, psychologists, social workers, personal care attendants, inclusion directors, camp counselors, clergy, child life specialists, nurses, receptionists, med techs and our friends and family who look at her and see her potential.

Today I'd like to share it with you.--Allyson

Seeing All There Is To See

Thank you for looking at our daughter and seeing all there is to see…
The smiles, the laughs, the curious glance, the memory of where the lollipops are kept.
Thank you for looking at our daughter and seeing her love for each and every human being,
her silly grin, her inquisitiveness, her understanding of what you say and how you’re feeling.
Thank you for seeing that her skills have improved and how much she has grown,
her ability to communicate and get her point across and to get you to respond.
Thank you for seeing and appreciating each behavior as it positively changes,
Her presence in the world, her gifts overriding each of many challenges.

Thank you for looking at our daughter and realizing we might need some help from you…
Identifying, researching and advocating for her as identified and needed.
Thank you for realizing that though we are her parents we aren’t experts on her conditions.
We didn’t start off knowing how to implement each doctor’s and therapist’s home renditions.
Thank you for realizing we need patience while we learn what it is that will help her flourish,
That each day can be filled with triumphs and defeats and words you say can nourish.
Thank you for realizing the amount of dedication we place in her personal development,
And that listening to our knowledge and intuition can play a role in her comportment.

Thank you for understanding the power of each of your attitudes and actions…
Never underestimating the impact of how you interact and what you communicate.
Thank you for understanding that your words to her and to us can make a difference,
How you say hello, that kind redirection, taking time to converse making connections,
Thank you for understanding that her thriving in this world will take extra focus and courage,
Along her path she will need ideas, hugs, humor, and words to encourage.
Thank you for understanding that support not pity sustains us as we maintain focus,
While this is not the direction we would have chosen her steps with us are blessed.

Thank you for looking at our daughter and seeing all there is to see…
The hopes, the dreams, the promises of all that she can and will achieve.
Thank you for looking at our daughter and never giving up, never showing doubt,
always looking, always searching for a way to bring her strengths from inside out.
Thank you for looking at reconnecting paths where none before existed,
Always searching for and trying different routes with gentle persistence.
Thank you for looking at our daughter and seeing all there is to see,

A little girl engaging the world with heartfelt possibility.                            

Copyright 2012 by Allyson Perling

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