Year 2, Day 197: 5 Gratitudes for Friday, 50

1. My son being water ready. My biggest fear has been Z not being able to save himself if something weird happened while swimming. He has no fear of the water, but his ability did not match!
After a week of swim lessons, Z can now save himself....everything after this will be gravy. Today, after only 5 lessons (a half hour each), Z jumped into the deep end, rolled onto his back and swam a modified version of the backstroke to the side of the pool. He did it several times.
What I loved watching, was how the trust Z had in his teacher, Ms. Sam, allowed him to push himself. Ms. Sam never once pushed Z or asked him to do more than he was comfortable with. She was patient. She asked him to work on different things (like learning to blow out of his nose when his face was in the water). She had him do everything that the rest of the class was doing, but let him know that he only had to do his best at his own pace and his own ability.
Also, in the beginning, Z would ask "are you going to let go?" Ms. Sam, said no and she kept her word. This was huge.

2. For Jaden, a girl in Z's swim class, for being such a caring young girl. Jaden noticed Z did not like to get his face wet. Jaden told her mom that she wanted to be Z's friend and help him like the water more. Z told me that he wanted to be Jaden's friend because her enthusiasm for "diving" down into the water made Z want to do it too. They have become friends and have cheered each other on through each and every class. Very cool.

3. For parents who get it. Not only did Jaden want to help Z, but Jaden's mom started cheering Z on whenever he did something especially hard. It became infectious and now all the parents are cheering on all the children when they do something hard. Z and Jaden happen to get most of the cheering because they both had the most to learn and the most fears to overcome. The first time these two children jumped into the deep end (with some help) - all the parents erupted into cheers and applause. It was just like the applause given to the winning team....because that is what it was. The winning team of two individuals overcoming a fear and learning a hard, but important skill.

4. For Heavenly Father giving me lots of opportunities this past few weeks to learn to be a little stronger and an opportunity for my children to learn to work hard be a little more responsible. Some of what we had to do (like cleaning up a bug explosion in the food pantry) I hope to never have to repeat, but I am grateful for the opportunities. I leaned on the Lord more and the children did more on their own. It was all worth it.

5. For my husband. He is an amazing father, an amazing husband and an amazing person. I am so glad that he married me 16 years ago. I am so thankful that he works hard so I can stay home and home school. I think I love him more now then I did then.

Happy Walking!