I was watching Cara get her breakfast this morning and it struck me how very far we have come.
We started with having to put liquid medication in her Pediasure as it was the only way she would take it. Then we got her to drink it without the Pediasure. The next difficult, very difficult, step was to get her to take medication in pill form. Big shout out to the staff at CCA for that one! Now, we fill her pill box, but that is it. She takes her pills out and takes them independently without any prompting. She even accepts changes in her medication without batting an eyelash. It is truly remarkable.
And she is independent on all of the rest of her breakfast (except for praying grace). She gets her cups and plate, her water and milk, her Pop-Tart. She even puts the extra Pop-Tart in a specific reusable baggie to use the next day. The only thing she still requires prompting on is saying grace. She just doesn't say it by herself and will sit there for as long as necessary until someone comes to say it with her.
She no longer eats like a chipmunk taking tiny bites and taking forever to eat. Now she takes normal-sized bites and is done in no time at all.
And did I expect to see this? No, I didn't. I honestly spend so much time just living in the here and now that I often do not take the time to picture the future for Cara. It seems to be constantly changing as she masters new skills that I never thought of - mainly because I was just looking at things day by day.
This school year has been an amazing one for Cara and I am so very proud of her. I am also so very grateful to the staff at CCA for all of their work in helping Cara get to where she is. We have three more years of high school and I am looking forward to seeing how she continues to grow.