The girls and I went ice skating the other afternoon while the boys were off doing their thing. As I was watching the girls ice skate, I was thinking about the conversation that we had in the van in route to the outdoor rink. We were talking about Victoria's new Leadership class. She is supposed to be thinking about someone who she admires that is not a family member, and write a letter telling them why she admires them. In her short little life of 9 years, she admires mostly family members. So I will be helping her think of someone in this next week or so. I got thinking about someone who I admire as I watched Daphne shuffle across the ice avoiding any possible unseen hazard. Which for Daphne, could be just about anything.
I realized at that moment, as I watched her start scraping her left foot forward at an extremely slow pace that not many would call ice skating,
I admire Daphne.
There are not many people who will attempt to do something that they can barely do. Daphne will just shuffle along, trying to pick up her feet as she attempts to glide on the ice. Victoria scoped out the raised areas of the ice and warned Daphne, just in case she didn't see them in the low lighting. She loves to ice skate even though she gets passed multiple times before she has made it around once. Victoria will constantly do a "fly-by" and almost knock her off balance until I threaten her to stop. I find myself keeping an eye on Daphne and grabbing her arm from time to time to steady her so she can pick up her pace with ease. One side of her body doesn't work as well as the other but yet....
she perseveres.
Daphne will continue to plug along at her own pace, not caring what other people think. I rarely hear her say that she can't do something even though we all know what she can and cannot do. Most things exhaust her requiring a nap. I love that she still wants to participate with activities that I find fun to do. I admire Daphne because she doesn't let her special ways stop her from being the person that God has intended her to be. I am proud of who she is and how hard she works at things that are so simple for the rest of us.
I admire her perseverence.
1 comment:
I admire her too, she is a beautiful young women. She has grown up so much. She might not see how far she has come (and maybe she can)but everyone in her life can and is so proud of her. I also admire her mother who helps her to be the women God intended her to be.
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