On comparison. & gratefulness.

• The other night, my son sat down in his room at bedtime and told J#1 and I that he (my son) was going to read us a story. And he did.  {well, he didn't read it, but he told us the story}
• Last Wednesday night, my son said "I wuv you mama" in reply to me when I told him that I love him...and he's been doing it ever since.  

If you know me in real life, you know how big of deal these two things are.  And daily, he's saying new words, repeating everything {uh oh} and communicating more. 

Up until recently, I was plagued by comparing.  Comparing him other kids his age.  Reading statuses on Facebook and wondering why HE wasn't telling us the funny stories other kids were.  I was doing that comparing even though he was jumping, running and being altogether fun and goofy without words. 

I've read blog posts by other moms who already had their kids in speech and language therapy to help them talk at J#3's age or even younger.  I wondered what we should be doing.  

I took him to speech and language therapy here in Scotland, and she told me that he was too young for them to work with one on one, and that it was likely he'd develop more communication very soon, likely when he started nursery school.  That was last Spring.

He went to nursery school.

 And his communication?  It exploded.

There are reasons I shouldn't have been comparing in the first place.

As a wee one, I didn't talk until I was three. 

We spent a year in a foreign-speaking country.  While the speech therapist said that didn't have an impact, in my head?  Spending a year where people talk to you in words you've never ever heard before has to have an affect.
  Comparison doesn't solve anything.

  It's not up to us.  It's up to Him.

I did not design the human mind to figure out the future.  That is beyond your capability. I crafted your mind for continual communication with Me. Bring Me all our needs, your hopes and fears.  Commit everything into My care. Turn from the path of planning to the path of Peace.  {Jesus Calling, September 17}

I am SO, so grateful to know that He has it covered. 

I'm grateful for J#3 having become a fountain of words.  I appreciate his {sometimes endless} babbling more because of the time I waited for it.

I'm grateful that I've had this experience so I can ease other mother's similar fears, and be able to tell them "I've been there".

And I'm grateful for "I wuv you mama."

 ~  ~  ~