What is True, Unconditional Love?

      "We Love because He (God) first Loved us".

"Children need love, especially when they do not deserve it."

            I wasn't going to start this entry with a verse from the Bible but I thought it went right along with it. That is what True, Unconditional Love is. It it giving up your life for someone else. It is sticking by them through the hardest times. It is trying to find a way through for them so you both can be happy and stop worrying for each other. It is supporting someone else even if you have to give up your own dream. We usually don't pay attention to unconditional love in everyday life but God has been pointing that out to be lately and it has made every day great and easy for me in ways but then some ways not. We tend to go about our days just doing what is right and no more and sometimes those little things might be love but we don't notice until the person or thing we love is gone. I have a couple of examples in my life right now that I will share and it will be along one. :)
            First one is about one of the children I work with and that is what I mean when you don't know the difference you made until a child is gone. I started with this child by myself because of the way things were at my job and it wasn't easy but I got through it. The child came from a environmentally bad home and was a year or 2 behind his normal age. He could not listen either because he had too many ear infections. This child did not know how to eat or even sit at a table. When he first came in and ate, he sat right on the floor. He would throw his food off the tray. He would scream and cry non-stop. He didn't know how to play with toys so he would just throw them everywhere and at everybody. He also screamed because that is the only way he knew how to communicate. He did not like baths at all when he first came. He also wanted to be held all the time and if you didn't do that he would kick and scream. He wanted held but wouldn't cuddle. He doesn't like transitions at all and still has a hard time with them.
             That all changed in only 3 months. It was a miracle to see it happen and I got to be a part of it. Where I work got him into all therapies (OT, PT, ST) and those seem to help a lot. He got tubes put in his ears while staying where I worked and that opened up a whole new world for him. He became more active after the surgery for his ears. He babbled more instead of screaming. He sits in a high chair now and at the tables sometimes. He eats with his silverware now where before he didn't know how to use them. He will try a little bite of different foods but he still loves any kind of rices and baked beans. He will have 2nd on those. He will sit by himself and try to play and build with toys. He was just starting to play with the other children this month. He loves to swing now and he will go up the climber and down the slide is a staff will go with him and he laughs about it too. He lets me cuddle and rock him for bedtime where before he wouldn't. He would give me butterfly kisses on the nose and laugh about it. I am going to miss his laugh and smile and his beautiful blue eyes. I got to where I could understand his babble and if not I would just say "oh! really!" and that would seem to be okay with him. You had to get really excited and happy with him if you wanted him to do something that he didn't like.
             I'm saying all the good things about this child but there was a lot of true, unconditional love at the start when he came in. God helped me through that is for sure. He gave me the peace and patience for this child. He would kick and hit like no other when he first came in. He would throw toys at staff when he was mad or just in a general direction and sometimes we would get hit. First few baths were hard because he was hitting.
             There was not a smile on that child's face when he first came in to where I worked but I know that there will be a smile on his face when he leaves because of what we did for him. As one of the workers said, "I have no idea how you did it with him but he connected right to you. You were like a angel sent for him. You had/have the gift to help him when no one else would have." I kept thinking, "It was all God, all this time." There is just no way of explaining the whole 3 months. You just had to be there to experience it.
             I will share the 2nd story of unconditional love later this weekend. This story was long.