Specs and such

Okay, I'm finally going to try to return from my blogging sabbatical. We've settled in our new "winter bungalow," or as Camille more honestly calls it, "the new apartment," so hopefully our family can brush off the moving dust and fatigue and bunker in, relishing in one final winter of no snow removal before we settle in a new home come late spring.

There are so many things to tell you about since mid-October--my trip to Hadley School for the Blind with Camille and Mom, Camille's latest trip to Detroit with Bill, Halloween, Livvy-ism's in general---but for tonight, I choose to pick a simple thing from this week: new specs for Camille. Yep, new glassess. Stylish. Chic. Trendy. She and I picked them out together at "Kathy's Place." (Also known as Visual-Eyes Optical, but renamed for the kind lady who always helps us there). By herself, she picked out the black patten case with a pink Barbie sillouette (no energy for spell-checking tonight).

And....here's the girl of the hour....proudly sporting her new glasses.

Does she not fit the picture of a school girl or what with the braids, the sweater, the glasses? (The glasses, by the way, are actually a dark pinkish purple--hard to tell from the photo.)

And speaking of school, I have to give you an update. She is just loving it so much. You can bet we have our share of challenges, and she has so many things to work on to make up for the hand she's been dealt, but she has just risen to the challenge in a way I'm not sure many of us could. She is talking so much at home she makes my introverted heart tired, and she has taken a blossom socially. Her biggest passion right now? Reading. She loves it. This year, we were in charge of drawing names for the O'Neill family Christmas. Lets just say every night this week, we've had to play "Draw names from the bucket." And darn it if she doesn't know how to read everyone's names....Vickie, Bridgette, Brooke, David, Grandma, etc., etc.....she knows them all. And not only do we have to read the names, we have to recreate the whole drawing exercise with an : "Okay, mommy. This person.....(draw from the bucket)...Grandma....buys for this person (draws from the bucket)... Olivia. " And so on, and so on, and so on........

And it doesn't stop with the Christmas names. She knows more sight words than I care to count and loves to try to sound out words. So despite the fact that she's still slow on her feet and the day-to-day tasks of life are a bit more challenging, these moments in the wake of those things are what make the challenges bearable. I sometimes wonder if she inherently knows that she has to prove herself to the world...or if is just grace in the midst of her challenges. Whatever the case, she soldiers on in joy.

So I say, go on my babe.

Though you shouldn't have to, prove away.

Your first three years of life were not so kind. At times, they were....well... for lack of a better word...hellish. I don't know how you stand where you are---what you are. Most adults would have given up long ago. But here you stand. And you stand with a statement.

Just know that your life is an endless opportunity.

Especially in those new glasses.