Pretty amazing child

Our little Emma is Down Syndrome. And boy do we love her. We have always expected her to reach her potential and be the best that she can be. That is a hard place to be with a child that naturally has lazy tendencies as most Downs children do. Mom was the bad guy for a long time. We have had many struggles in the family regarding what Emma needed and how far to push but thankfully we are all on the same page now, except for Malia who is old enough to do things for Emma but not old enough to understand the consequences. For a long time Emma was stubborn and strong headed with us at home but loving and sweet with everyone else. The manipulation was unbelievable. We knew she was very smart through this. A couple of years ago a change started in her. She began to settle in and respect her parents and older siblings. We saw the sweet side come out in her at home. The transformation has been amazing. She has turned into a little girl that desires to obey and please. It is so fun to watch her real self come out without any of the previous manipulation and fake emotion. She often has us giggling because she is doing something cute. Last week there was a discussion about the song "We Will Rock You". That is a song that we don't usually play so the youngest children wouldn't know it. Doug pulled it up to research the question they had and began to play it. Emma joined right in singing "we will we will rock you". She sang at the top of her lungs and mostly with the beat while she pumped her hand in the air. We were all surprised that she could sing this. All I can figure is they play the song at school. I didn't know what to think of it at first but watching Emma I decided that if they can get a child that has slow reactions and a hard time memorizing things to sing a song on beat then go for it. During the whole song Emma danced and sang. We tried not to laugh at how cute she was but it didn't work too well. We pulled the video camera out and played the song again. She danced around and had a great time while mostly staying on beat. A few days later we got an alphabet video that I had ordered. Malia is trying to read without knowing all of her letters well. I ordered this video so that she could have one more form of support. We got out the flash cards to see what the program was like. I was showing them to Malia when Emma started saying the sounds. At first I thought that she was just copying me. A couple of cards later she said the sounds before I did. At that point I showed her the flash cards and she went through each one of them and only missed the sound for the "V". I could not believe it. She tried to tell me that she learned it at school but her speech is not real clear so I wasn't sure what she was saying. Sure enough they have the video's at school and she has learned the sound of most of her letters. It's still a bit inconsistent but she has enough that she can start to sound some things out. I think the next step in reading for her will be difficult because most kids have a hard time putting sounds together to make a word. I know it will come eventually. I have wondered if she would ever read well because it has come so slow. I now have confidence that she will read and do well at it. I am so proud of her. She is really doing well. She tries to answer questions. She sings out when we sing or at church. She loves to pray and can do so on her own. She prays about those things she is thinking so we know she is understanding. She is a very helpful girl and loves to be in the middle of things. She often will walk up to me and hug me on the leg and say "I love you Mommy". Emma is really a precious little girl. It has been a hard road and I know that she was partly sent to me to root out the weakness in my soul. She really showed me a lot of my weakness. What a blessing it has been to have someone like Emma be the means to help purify me. I will be ever grateful for her and her sacrifice to come down to earth in her not so perfect body. Now we just have to find her new glasses that mysteriously disappeared.:)