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Sensory overload

Today, Je, A and myself, had a girlie day - NO BOYS ALLOWED!  After breakfast, we headed out to WalMart to do some shopping.  Poor Je just needed a few items like toothpaste, body wash, etc.  She was so overwhelmed with all the choices.  Each time she moved to a new item, A and I would walk away and give her some time to look over everything and choose.  As overwhelmed with the choices as Je was, A was moving from place to place so fast I couldn't keep up with her.  "Aunt Mally look at this,"  "Aunt Mally look how beautiful this is," "Aunt Mally....".  The child just couldn't believe everything she was seeing.  At one point she even told me, "I just love this mall!"  I had to explain this was just one store, we had not yet made it to the mall.

 My girlfriend Bethany gave Je a haircut and then went with us to Chick-filet for lunch.  A played in the indoor playground and met several little girls and boys who eagerly played with her.  She was so excited she told her mom she had made 5 new friends.  We then proceeded to the mall where they both just looked like deer caught in headlights with all the stores.  Je wanted to find a few specific clothing items and A spied the store "Justice".  We went there while mom went looking for herself.  She was in total amazement looking at the clothes, shoes, hair accessories, make-up kits, jewelry, toys, and million other things they have in the store.  Watching her made me realize she has not had really had these kind of choices before.  When they visited 2 1/2 years ago, she really was too young to be interested in shopping. 

A in my shoes!

A in Bethany's shoes!
By the end of the day, A was totally overstimulated.  I really felt for her as she struggled to stay composed.  As the tears came, I realized the child had been on 20+ hours of plane rides just 2 days ago.  She has had only one true night of sleep in the past 4 nights.  She has spent all day with us running around and interacting with other children.  I probably wouldn't be composed either if I were in her shoes.  I thought about how I would leave the ER at the end of a 12 hour shift and feel like if I heard another sound I would scream.  The noise level for the entire shift was more than I could handle when the silence finally came.  I could completely understand where she was coming from.

It was about 5 minutes into the car ride home that we looked back and she was asleep.   Each one of us needs to find time each day to take a deep breath and relax.  Take time out from the noise, the electronics, the business of life and calm our spirits.  Too much of anything is never healthy.  For even in the bible, God rested, "And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done." Gen 2:2 ESV.

In His service
Mally

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