For a Christmas Miracle

I was talking to a friend about Missy and my thoughts on how we are going to go about helping her reach her potential. I told her I thought I needed to teach her to play a musical instrument. I told her I thought it would seem near impossible, but if I have to move her fingers for her and not move on to the next concept for three months and 5 million tries, so be it. She may never be a musician, but it's the process that does so much for the brain. My friend then started to tell me her story.

Her son's story.

I know this boy. He's almost Vanessa's age. SMART... like he's already finished calculus, kind of smart.

Apparently he was very developmentally delayed at one time. He could not function on par with the other kids in his kindergarten. His parents were told he would never learn to read. He would never learn. He would never be able to live on his own, they said. The frustrations in a child with severe developmental delays cause behaviors, too. They had it all and they were heartbroken.

The mom did her research. She read everything she could get her hands on and then she decided she needed to teach him to play a musical instrument. She decided his left brain and his right brain were not communicating with each other and somehow she thought that he would benefit if she taught him to play the violin.

It was a horrible nightmare journey - at first and for a long time.  According to her, he's not a fabulous violinist now, but he does well enough to enjoy it and participate in symphony. The point of her story, though, was that although she found it very, very difficult to teach him she plodded on and as she did so she saw changes. He fought her. He hated it. He had to be retaught and retaught, but she never lost sight of the goal.

Missy asked for a violin last year. We laughed. We knew she was enamored by her new big sisters' music but she most certainly was not going to get a violin for Christmas. One of the packages under the tree was a little toy broom and dust pan... wrapped it looked to her like her dream come true! I'm so sorry child. What an awful disappointment!!

She hasn't let the idea go. She is still looking for a violin for Christmas.

I told my friend that I had been thinking piano, but after hearing her story maybe I needed to find an old dilapidated violin.

The friend reached under a chair and pulled out a small black case. She unzipped it and showed me... her child's first violin. Then she re-zipped it and handed it to me. "Take it", she said, "And Merry Christmas to Missy!"

And so, we have one Christmas miracle,

and we are looking for two more....That I {who doesn't play violin} will be able to transfer Brianna's know-how into mini-lessons and that Missy will be able to learn.

We aren't looking to make her a great musician, or any kind of musician, we are looking to exercise her brain.

We're looking for a Christmas Miracle.

PART 2 { here}

PART 3 { here }