Small Victories

We are all trying really hard to learn Spanish and understand what people are saying.  Today Lucas, Melayna, Matt and I all had small victories.  Lucas was walking to church and counting steps and was able to count to 100 with very little help for the first time and he was not asked to speak in Spanish.  Usually you have to ask him to use Spanish, but not this time.  Matt found himself counting laps around the park in Spanish without a conscious decision which was big and Melayna now knows how to answer the question, "Como estas?"  My little victory was understanding enough Spanish to know what the gospel was today.  In the speaking realm it was a good day for us.  They are just small steps, but they are good ones.  It makes me think about all the hard things we have accomplished in our lives small step by small step.  I use that philosophy often in therapy with the kids.  A parent comes in and wants the child to walk.  I do not say to the parent that he or she will or will not walk, but I tell them first we need to work on sitting balance to strengthen the abdominal muscles.  Then we will work on getting into sitting, pulling to kneeling, pulling to standing, standing balance with and without support, walking with assistance, then finally walking without assistance if possible.  Not all kids make it through all the steps, but that is what we work towards.  It is the same with all goals like sitting on their own, learning to run, riding a bike and like with my Grandfather after his stroke, learning to golf again.  We all have these difficult things in our lives that we have to take in small steps and when you look back, you can be so proud of your accomplishment because you worked so hard to get there.  We are nearly one month into this journey and have done so much in little tiny steps.  My lesson from today's thoughts is to keep taking baby steps and we will accomplish big things.