photo albums

oct. 13, 2011, marked 3 years of residential living for brooke at the Learning Tree in our area.

during her time there we have encountered various trials and victories...some i have posted about and you have read...others never to be spoken or read.

on thursday, oct 13...i went to brooke's group home like i do everyday...but today did seem a bit different. it was as if she knew it had been 3 years. i stood beside her bed to hear just a "chatter" from her of any kind...i got nothing. within minutes, and without any gestures from me, brooke got up, went to her night stand where animals and photo albums remain, and she grabbed 3 of her photo albums i had made for her. with books in hand she quickly jumped on her bed and reading from right to left she looked thru the pictures as if she remembered each one and the day it was captured. over and over again, going from album to album, page to page, she pointed to grandparents, ethan's face, josiah's hands, she glanced over her cousins and self-portraits. she smiled at some. looked away at others. i wondered what she thought. i wondered how she felt.
one thing i do know is she remembered. this was the first time i've seen her look thru her pictures in at least a year. for some reason, on that day in front of me, she wanted to see them and it made me smile.

sometimes i forget that not only we miss her greatly..but she misses us. it was a beautiful picture to me...
one that i wanted to capture and put in her photo album.
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it's not a surprise we miss brooke and want her in a place of stability so that she can come back home and live with us. we desire that and there are days i pray more than i breath for her return.
i know it will happen.
i know there will be a jubilee. (lev. 25)