This past month, our sweet Emma started testing for ADD and dyslexia. 

I’m not sure how definitive the answers will be after this, but if she’s clearly one or the other (or both), I think we’ll have better answers than what we’ve had thus far.  Wes and I have been doing our part — doing evaluations, answering questions, making observations for those who are testing — and have kept up with what they’ve been doing at the school — hearing tests, vision tests, classroom observation, teacher evaluations.  We’ve been eager to hear that they’ve started working directly with Emma, seeing how she thinks and trying to determine what’s going on in that pretty little head of hers.

“Mommy,” Em said the other day when she jumped in the car at pickup time, “I left the class today and did PUZZLES!”

“Oh,” I said, knowing that this was probably the start of another portion of tests.  “Did you?”

“Yeah!,” she said.  “A lady came and talked to me about how I like my classes.  And we did PUZZLES!”

“Well, you like puzzles,” I said.

“Yeah!”  Then, a long pause.  “Why am I getting to leave class to do puzzles?”

I took a deep breath.  Then, I answered her like this…  “When Mommy makes cookies, do all of the cookies look exactly alike?”

Emma didn’t have to think about this too long.  “Nope!”  (She knows cookies.)

“Yeah, they all look a little different.  That’s kind of like how God makes all of us.  We’re each just a tiny bit different — no two people are exactly alike.  And do you know what God did when He made you and when He made Ana?”

“He made us pretty.”  (That He did.  She knows this, too, because she may have heard it a few thousand times from Papi.)

“Yes, He did… AND He made you both super smart.  But you learn very differently in school.  And while we know how to help Ana do her best to learn in school… we’re still trying to figure out how to help you.  You and Ana were made like two different cookies, and you’re both just exactly like God wanted for you to be.  We just need to figure out what exactly He did when He made you.”

She thought about this for a second, even as Ana opened her mouth to say something (likely something unhelpful about how she makes perfect grades while Emma can’t manage to get her shoes on the correct feet most mornings), then said, with quite a bit of pride and her amazing Emmy enthusiasm…

“Maybe they’re seeing if I’m gifted, too!”

Oh, sweet girl, there’s no doubt in my mind that you’re gifted in ways that we won’t know the half of until we’re in eternity and see what lives God has changed through you.

So proud of my sweet Emmy and the special cookie that she already is!