In withdrawal

Okay....I'm getting used to this 'chatting' now....and missing doing the usual weekly photo posts...so I thought I'd share some old gems of Maxine.....

I had such an easy pregnancy with Maxine - no problems, cravings, or otherwise...apart from that I didn't realise I was in labour for a few days before eventually going to the hospital....she was born a few hours later. (I am the only person I know of that can be that stupid so as not to realise I was in labour!)

Look at how tiny she was!

I was very nervous as a mum...I didn't find it at all natural and I found it very confusing with all the helpful advice everyone gave. And Maxine didn't do anything the books said she should......I eventually stopped reading them!

But she was a happy baby.

To this day, she has an infectious smile and laugh, and an immeasurable lust for life......I smiled when I heard her swimming teacher greet her on Friday with 'hello my Sunshine'. She truly is a ray of sunshine.

When Maxine started primary school, aged 4, she could only speak a couple of words, but was communicating through Makaton. This is her on her first day of school.

It was heartbreaking and SOOO frustrating for such a long time, her not being able to tell us how her day was at school, and with time (as she began trying) feeling her frustration as she couldn't get things out. Not just talking to us, talking to other children and teachers at school.

What a journey this has been.........

Six years on, she is reading, writing, and above-all, talking...well enough for strangers to understand what she is saying. For a syndrome where many children don't learn to speak, she is nothing short of a miracle.

I can't tell you how many pictures I take of her, even now, where she still has food on her face.....

Next Wednesday is Maxine's interim review meeting at school, where we'll be meeting the educational psychologist who has recently been assigned to her (we never met the previous one - never came to any of her meetings). I am quite nervous because previously the meetings were just about how she was progressing and deciding future targets. This time it's different because the gap is that wide now between Maxine and her peers that it would equally be appropriate now to place her in a special school....just doesn't feel right though.

But as with everything else in my life, I know it will be okay.......God has always watched over me, and when I am most frightened I remind myself that it is all part of His plan.....and that He chose Trevor to be in my life, and that He chose us to be Maxine's parents.

That's it from me for this evening.

(And, yes, I did get my lazy bones back into gym yesterday!)