Wrapping up for the year

We had a wonderful Christmas celebration at our house. The excitement leading up to it was so fun. We never thought she would sleep past 5am Christmas morning, but we were wrong. She went to bed late and must have been so exhausted from all of the anticipation that it wore her out. She didn't get up until almost 9am! Her older sisters were happy about that, they were afraid they would need to get up early. We start off the day with opening our stockings. She was the first to be handed a stocking. She grabbed it and hugged it tight, it was such a precious sight. When we started opening presents, she just wanted to start playing with the first thing she opened. It wasn't long until she was overwhelmed by it all, but her reaction to this was just to sit quietly. It was a really fun day for everyone. We have been taking care of a kitten which we decided to keep for S. We put him in a box and quickly brought him to her to open. When she opened it she exclaimed, "We got another kitty?" She wanted to know how we got him in the box, it was so cute. She wants to be able to take care of kitty herself and be responsible for him. She says she wants to be in charge of him like I am of her and to teach him right from wrong. I think he is going to be really good for her. He is so good natured, she can do anything to him and he just purrs louder.

I hope the close of 2011 brings a close to our NR work. I never imagined that we would have so much emotional work after we were finished with the program. I am not complaining though, it's just hard to see her have to go through this. We go back in January for hopefully our last re-evaluation. I am so glad we went through NR, now I can only wish that I could convince countless others to make the journey. It's just so hard to know that children can go through life with full potential after an NR program but instead function with lots of coping mechanisms and the appearance of being healed. I thought that parents who chose the 'cover up' therapies were just uninformed, but I was wrong. Maybe they lack the confidence to do it themselves, maybe it's lack of self-discipline, maybe they just don't believe it will work. I know I suffered from lack of self discipline and had big time compliance problems with my daughter. I just hope that we can be an example to others. Our journey is not as difficult as some, but I do know that is was a lot more difficult than many. Either way, I'm happy for where were are today and can't wait to write our graduation notice to the group!