A different song

 This may be my new favorite quote when I think about Annika and just how I approach life.  I know I have been teaching for quite some time now (almost 14 years and I am not sure how that is possible)and I know that each of my students are different and unique.  But it just brings it home when it is your own child.  It is amazing to watch all the wonderful things Annika is doing already, when doctors and websites said she wouldn't, just to her own music.  That doesn't mean that sometimes I don't find myself trying to get her to dance to the same song "typical" kids seem to be dancing to, but I catch myself and remember to tune into her station.  Sometimes I forget that she is even listening to a different song until I see the look someone gives me when I am holding her like an infant and say she is 15 months old.  All of a sudden I am crudely aware that our music is nothing like their child's and it catches me off guard.  I feel defensive for a moment or that I need to tell people right away that Annika was made extra special, but I just need to remember that it doesn't matter what they think or see, she is our perfect gift and such a blessing.

This book was given to us by the wonderful family that we met in ABQ over Christmas.  I absolutely love it and I am thankful Angie got it for the girls.  In case you don't get to read it, it is about a giraffe, Gerald, who can't dance and everyone makes fun of him.  Then he finds his own music and he starts his own amazing dance.  Isn't it funny how in life if we stop trying to copy someone else's dance we find our own moves and find that it is so much more fun that trying to fit into another song.  This is what God wants us to see in our lives.  

He has a different song for each of us because each of us are "...fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well" Psalm 139:14

Finding our dance is not always easy.  I distinctively remember what junior high, and even parts of high school, felt like.  I know I kept trying to dance like others and tried to fit into their lives, but it took a HUGE change in my life - well for a high schooler it felt huge - to start to find my own moves.  I had to switch from Cibola High School to Valley High School and that was so devastating to me at the time.  Looking back, I am able to see that this was a turning point in life that allowed me to dance to my own music.  

So special needs or not, we all have a tough time finding our music and this has been a reminder of this fact.  Find your dance, feel your music, and let the Lord lead you where He wants you to go and you will be amazed at how great life can be.  And if you start to feel down or have a tough day dancing, come hang out with Annika for a little while.  You can't help it but have a smile on your face when you are with her.