The magical moments we have with our Lil become just like your favorite song: you can’t help but play on repeat. They become a precious gift we can share with Lilly’s ever growing team of family and friends, enthusiastically living through every victory.
If you are present (and, most of all, patient), the intrinsic rewards of these moments — these seemingly impossible achievements — are the best gift to watch unfold and bloom. By presuming competence and providing opportunities, our girl is shining brighter than ever.
Our dear and beloved friends — two of the sweetest and selfless teenage girls around — let Scarlett borrow the coolest, brightest hot pink nail polish around. She couldn’t have felt cooler as she clinched the bottle so tightly on our drive home.
After a Daddy-Daughter bonding nail party, Scarlett proudly displayed her glowing toes for us all to see. Hours later, completely out of the blue, Lilly spoke the most beautiful sentence we have ever heard.
“I want on my toes color.”
Lilly’s autism may create a delay in time — a pause button, per say. The pause button holds for minutes, hours, days, months or even years. But the truth is that the pause button is not permanent.
Our Autism Angel is present, aware, listening. I noticed her staring at Scarlett’s toes all day, but it still blew my mind hearing that specific desire flow out of her mouth.
Cue nail polish party: part two. The happy hands, dimple bearing grin and ear covering humming ensued, and we cheered with delight right along. When nighttime came, I pressed her weighted blanket over her in bed, she leaned over and presented her hands, dainty as can be.
“Paint the hands.”
Every part of my heart wanted to jump out of her bed and give in, but my head knew better… “Tomorrow, sweetheart.”
Fast forward to this morning… My angel runs out of bed, climbs up with me and proudly states,
“Paint my hands.”
Yes, the pause button is short this morning. Will it lengthen again – of course. The point is to join her in her mysterious and magical world of autism.
And isn’t it a refreshing thought for us to all use that pause button from time to time?
