June 2

This past week we had 25 1/2 hours of official Sarah-Rise time and lots of lovely moments.

One afternoon Sarah and Amy were playing together, sort of hugging and wrestling at the same time. Sarah spontaneously gave Amy a zerbert (aka a raspberry) on her cheek. During a SR session with me she promptly reciprocated a zerbert without any prompting.

Amy loves doing Ring-Around-The-Rosey either with me or stuffed animals. It is beyond adorable when she sings it to herself while spinning with a doll. She always asks Sarah to do it with her but Sarah almost always says no or doesn’t respond. On the Amy-zerbert afternoon I prompted “come do ring-around-the-rosey with us” instead of asking. Sarah participated 3 times!

One evening during dinner Sarah stood up to eat her avocado popsicle. Amy then got up and sidled up as close as she could to Sarah. Then Sarah started spinning and so did Amy. Carl and I were cracking up at this sisterly moment that felt like a falling in love scene from an ’80’s romantic comedy.

We had friends come over for dinner on Friday night and Sarah was very upset that I wouldn’t make her another avocado shake when she wanted it. She was crying and yelling a lot. C. was sitting behind her and said something about how it was a bummer she couldn’t have what she wanted. Sarah momentarily paused, turned to C., and said “yes” and then went back to her upset. What I loved about that moment was that Sarah turned half-way around to make solid eye contact and respond clearly and appropriately to a statement that had a new word for her (bummer). In general, C. said Sarah was interacting, looking, and communicating more than she had a few months ago.

Sc had a session where she and Sarah played with two themes for the whole 2 hours (making milkshakes and then buses). That is phenomenal in terms of flexibility, imagination play, and attention span. It has since also been determined that apparently Sc is the only one who knows how to appropriately build a bus. 🙂

We have an influx of new volunteers and returning volunteers getting started this coming week which is absolutely wonderful. Last night we had a team meeting and I was so aware of how influential we are as a team since we all have different ideas. We can provide such a variety of play experiences for Sarah that she wouldn’t get if it was just me. We spent a lot of the meeting sharing some of our recent moments with Sarah and reviewing her goals and motivations. We spent the last half hour making games. This was a first and it was hugely successful. I have been intending to create games for a long time but it was the thing that never made it to the priority level of my to-do list. For this meeting I prepared with craft supplies and lots of printed pictures of people that Sarah knows.

We now have a poster-board with velcro spots for a matching game of faces of family and friends. We have a transportation poster-board that can utilize the same faces as the matching game. We have cut-out heads of family and friends on popsicle sticks with construction paper accessories and hair. We also have small construction paper snails hidden around the room and a pile of their matching counterparts with written reminders as to where the hidden match is. I love my team so much and I am so impressed with everyone every time. Every time I see their glowing faces and hear the love as we talk about Sarah I am filled to the brim with gratitude. Each hour of focused, loving SR time is such a gift and the group meeting takes it to the next level because we have a whole group of people meeting with the sole purpose of loving and helping another person be the best that she can be. The beauty of Son-Rise is that the best way to help Sarah is for us to clear our own emotional junk and thus be the best that we can be.

Sb, one of the most amazing volunteers and people I have ever known, is going to be leaving our program because it really doesn’t fit with her schedule at the moment. I am so grateful for the time she has given. She embodies the three E’s (Energy, Excitement, and Enthusiasm) and her creativity has had my jaw drop many a time. She is especially skilled at using Sarah’s motivations to branch into new games. She will be missed!