The kindness of strangers

(1st picture) Lilly loves her big brother! And he frequently tells her that he loves her too. :)

Lilly continues to have physical therapy each week (right now Friday mornings). Yesterday Lilly started occupational therapy. The occupational therapist (O.T.) is to work with Lilly's fine motor skills. She worked a lot with Lilly's hands and said she would order her some splints right away to train them to open more. She showed me a number of exercises to do with Lilly's hands each day, in additional the stretching and massaging we already were doing. We had hoped the O.T. would be able to work with Lilly for mouth feeding, but she decided she wasn't specialized enough to help Lilly with that.

(2nd picture) A couple weeks ago, a family at church brought Lilly a gift basket that a neighbor had made for her. The basket was beautifully decorated with flowers. (I was actually surprised at the impression that special touch made on me. I guess in this hurry up world of gift bags where you toss in the present and shove a few pieces of tissue paper in, something beautifully done with a little thought really does make quite a statement!) The woman put in a card and a nice sweater for Lilly. We were so touched. It was definitely another "Lilly Blessing!"

One thing in our Lilly journey that has continued to amaze us and make a huge impression on us is the number of strangers that have reached out to us. We have received hundreds of cards from people we don't know, gifts from strangers, supportive blog comments from many people we've never met, and the prayers of thousands and thousands of people. Just this morning I checked this blog's stats section and saw that people had recently visited Lilly's blog from countries far away like Romania, Germany, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Slovenia, the Netherlands, and New Zealand. (Hey "Carol from New Zealand" - thanks for all your blog comments! We are grateful for your support.)

As I have posted here, my father-in-law has recently passed away. His visitation (viewing), funeral, and burial were all the same day. When we arrived for the visitation, my son had just fallen asleep and Lilly was drifting off. So we decided it was best I stay in the car with them and let them get a good nap before the funeral. When my husband finally came out and got us, we had just a few minutes to meet people. He carried Lilly in and I tell you it was like a little celebrity coming into the room. People flocked all around her to see the Lilly that they had been reading about and praying for. Once again we were just stunned at the number of people that said they frequently read Lilly's blog and pray for her and us. More Lilly Blessings.

My husband and I tend to be introverts. But one thing we've been learning, from the example of so many, is how to reach out better to others. We've done all sorts of things that we probably never would have thought of doing before. What amazing examples God has sent us. Hmmmm ... having a child with Trisomy 18 is not only faith building, it's also character building!

"Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it." - Hebrews 13:2

"For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in," - Matthew 25:35