We are noticing more and more how Whitney loves information
to be absolute. Abstract thinking
just confuses her. At church, the
children were asked, “what does Jesus do for you to show you that he loves
you?” One child said that he gave
her a family. Another said that he
gave him a home. Whitney signed,
“Jesus died”, then sat down. Yep,
she knows the facts, but can’t understand the meaning behind things.
On the same lines, schedules have become a very important
part of her life. They help her to
organize her complex day into facts and calm her anxiety about each day. She has learned that anything on the
calendar is absolute truth. If it
is there, it usually happens. I walked by the fridge with our Martha Stuart
calendar and saw that Whitney added something. “Dannie come over” spelled correctly and everything. Ha ha, my smart girl wanted her
friend to come over. If it’s
on the calendar, it must be true.
Friends are so important. Whitney wants friends desperately. After a fun cheerleading practice with coaches giving her
piggyback rides, and lifting her up into different fun cheerleading poses, she
always says that her favorite part of cheerleading is her friends Lucy and Ally. I’m so grateful for this cheerleading
program. It is a place where
Whitney can be her self and feel a sense of friendship each week. This photo of her and her friend
Ally won the “Cutie patooies” award in the January issue of the North Gilbert Breeze newspaper.
