Hard Stuff

Age 12 has been chock full of real-life hard stuff!  School has gotten more challenging and more demanding, Lily is having to learn a lot of grown-up things such as time management, electing to engage even when she doesn't want to, and advocating for herself!  These have been tough lessons to learn and sometimes I feel like we cattle prod her too much sometimes, but if she can master these we know she will be very successful in her life! On a more difficult note, last night we shared with Lily that her beloved Pastor Mark, is even more sick than we had expected.  They have called in Hospice and they are not sure if he will even make it to Christmas.  When we told her she cried and cried and cried.  It was heartbreaking, not being able to fix it for her.  Originally she had wanted to visit him as he has been living in an assisted living place specializing in full-time care for Alzheimer's patients.  However, when we showed her pictures of his gaunt appearance and videos of his weakness and repetitive behaviors, she decided that perhaps she wasn't quite ready for that.  Sometimes life is really tough.