It’s officially hot outside.

I’m going to try to get better about blogging more regularly this summer. So we’ll see how long that lasts.

This week I’ve been going to vacation bible school with Blythe. Blythe’s my summer love. She’s 7 and this is my 3rd summer to take care of her. For those of you who haven’t heard me talk about her, I’ll fill ya in. Blythe was born with a condition called Rett Syndrome. It’s a genetic disorder found in only girls. Pretty much Rett girls develop normally for 18-24 months, they start walking, talking, feeding themselves, etc. Then they gradually start to lose their functioning. Blythe, praise Jesus, can still walk. But as with all Rett syndrome girls, she can’t talk or use her hands, essentially she has no way to communicate or do anything for herself. It’s not 100% certain how Rett girls develop cognitively but they believe that they develop similarly to any child their age. So Blythe, is pretty much a lovely 7 year old girl, trapped in a body that won’t do what she wants it to. Fortunately, technology is such that Blythe is learning how to talk using a computer, so cool. She is constantly cracking us up with the things she’ll say at just the right moment. My favorite is when her family(she has a 6 year old sister and 4 year old brother) is being kind of ridiculous, she’ll sometimes go to this one page and say “this is my family.” haha.

Okay so back to VBS. So we’ve been at VBS this week, which she’s really enjoyed, it’s been a little challenging for me. The other little girls in her group don’t really pay attention to her, and any attention she does get is generally staring or asking me questions like, “why does she drink out of a baby cup?” (well God made Blythe so that her hands won’t do what she wants them to, so normal cups are too hard for her to drink out of) “why does she scream all the time?” (Well God made Blythe so her brain won’t let her talk, so she screams to express herself) “what is that thing on her arm?” (Well Blythe chews on her hand sometimes, and she has a cut right now so that keeps her arm straight so she won’t chew on it) Which I always have to follow by, “But Blythe understands what you’re saying to her if you talk to her.” How do you explain all that to a 7 year old,  that this is how Jesus made her, and we need to accept her and love her just like we do anyone else? I had a hard enough time getting used to it, and getting to that point and I’m 20!  Blythe doesn’t seem to mind that most of the girls pretend like she’s not there, but I do. Yesterday though, we were at game time, running around, playing “plagues” which is pretty much “man, gun, gorilla” or “rock paper scissors”. Blythe and I were running around looking for someone to pair up with, but everyone just steered away , so when it came time to play I just turned her back to back with me and we played. The next round we were running around and I was fully prepared to be her partner every round. But a precious little freckled face girl came running over with a big smile on her face and got back to back with Blythe. It made me smile so big. I told Blythe what we were gonna be and when we turned around, we tied. Her name was Riley, she said she knew Blythe and they were in a class together. She sat next to Blythe after we finished playing and all during games today she hula-hooped with Blythe and talked to her. She helped Blythe put her hula hoop back, and told her that she liked her glasses. And later when she saw us in the hallway, she ran up giggling and said “Look Blythe, I lost my name tag!” It made me want to cry. 7 year old freckled face Riley, got it. She talked to Blythe like she was there, and really knew how to be her friend. I don’t know if Blythe took too much notice, but I sensed the love of Christ in Riley. She loved Blythe so well, and no one even asked her to, she did it on her own, and was so joyful about it. I know that wasn’t me at 7. I am so quick to judge, and if I’m honest probably slow to love, especially those that are hard to love, hard to understand, or just “different”. A little girl named Riley demonstrated the love that Christ calls us to have for others, she has definitely impacted me and challenged me to love others differently. I guess we should never underestimate what the Lord will teach us. VBS is certainly teaching me more than I thought it would.

 

Blythe in her Croc hat that covered up her face.

 

All tuckered out