Unexpected Gift

The holidays I am not very fond of. Multiple reasons why, but we won't get into that. BUT I think I got the best holiday gift I've gotten in a long long time. It was so unexpected, and I don't even think that the person who gave it to me realized.

But in the past couple of days, I keep looking at it. Re-reading it.
When I first got it, I read it and was teary when I was done.
And when I read it days later, I still get weepy.

Here is just a small, little tid-bit of the email I received from Daniel's speech/augmentative therapist. What she writes in incredibly cool (in my book) but so incredibly nice because she didn't need to write anything at all. Completely unexpected, and from the heart.

"I just had to write to say again that Daniel did so great yesterday. Some of my kids just clam up when there is a visitor from school, or they spend most of the session wondering why someone from school is here with them in therapy. Not Daniel! He only had a few perplexed looks, but continued to do his excellent job with his eye gazing, identifying concepts, using the communication device to answer questions and to play and using his yes-no cards and signals (I absolutely love how he picked up the head shaking for “no” – that to me speaks worlds about his potential because he picked that up on his own without anyone having to specifically teach that)."

It is such an awesome feeling to have someone else see Daniel for WHO he is and not WHAT his diagnosis is. She does not judge him. She works beyond what I would ever expect to help Daniel reach his highest potential, and I will be forever thankful to her for that, and for caring about my son. (some of her work here and here).

She believes in Daniel, she teaches Daniel his ways to communicate, and what a wonderful "voice" she has given him.