Tender

Savanah is the most tender child I know.
She'll cry watching Fox and the Hound.
She would give you her last crumb.
She would do anything for anyone.



Unfortunately this week Savanah
had to deal with her very first loss.
Our yellow labrador of 8 years, Koby
was hit by a truck and had to be put down that night.

Now this is rough stuff for anyone.
Especially Savanah.
Who does have such a tender soul.
And ESPECIALLY for animals.

I was so impressed with her.
She handled it well.
Aside from her outbreaks of complete despair.
She cried for him. Wept for him. Prayed for him.
She grasped the concept immediately that he would never
be coming back. We would never see him again.
He was now in Doggy Heaven.
Free from pain and suffering.
This made her happy for him.
She was able to verbalize her emotions wonderfully.
Which I know helped her cope in an unbelievable way.

Once again I was so proud of her.
Without her cochlear implant,
sometimes I wonder if moments like those
would be as impactful.
If she would be able to fully express
EXACTLY what she is feeling.
I am so grateful for everything she is teaching me.
She helped us all this week.

"Let's GO Vikings!"

So Savanah just started cheerleading.
Through a rec Center. . .
a little headstart on the house we are building
and the location we are building it at.
But none the less. . . it's great.
Yesterday was her first day.
She was so excited.
She's been to enough BYU games to know
how awesome cheerleaders are!
The cheer clinic was held in the gymnasium
at the rec center.
There were about 30 girls total
with 4 cheerleaders from the highschool team
instructing all of these eager little kidlets.
I didn't mention to anyone that Savanah couldn't hear very well.
I wanted to see how she did.
I could tell the music was a little too loud for her
in such a large acoustic space.
I could tell she was struggling a bit to hear the leaders
but she was following along right on point.
I was thrilled to see after they broke up into
their official cheer squads that they placed
her on the front row right next to the leaders.
This made me smile inside.
God's little mercies I suppose.
Helping her out when nothing is said.
She did wonderfully for her first practice!
I was so impressed and my little cheerleader did a great job!
So. . . here's the start of the season!

Whirlwind

So Savanah is officially a BIG second grader now.
It was a rough start to the week.
All because she was not wearing her hearing aid.
Her audiogram was just awful with it in
so her audiologist felt like it was better without it.
I guess not.
Those first three days of school were dreadful.
She was barely hearing anything.
Not able to follow along to what was being taught.
Extremely frustrating,
not exactly the best first couple of days I suppose.

Things are better now.
She is loving her mainstream teacher.
She is enjoying school and her new classmates.
She is catching on to math a little better now.
She LOVES that she is taking home lunch EVERY DAY.
She loves recess and all she wants to do is wear her tennis shoes.
Definitely will be buying another pair of those in a few weeks.

She's reading really well still.
I am so impressed by this.
And so very proud of her.
I am so excited to watch what lies ahead for her.
And hope that her dad and I can do everything we possibly can to give her the best opportunities in life, school etc.