Monday, April 11, 2011

Nail Time With Ginny

I've been talking about Ginny with you guys a lot lately and she's been on my mind a lot lately too. If you haven't heard, here is some information about her. My major in college is Therapeutic Recreation - fun stuff that is specifically designed and chosen for each patient to be therapeutic and work on things they need help with. I work with Ginny every Saturday. I call myself her caretaker, and not her babysitter, because it's so much more than that. She is 12 years old and has multiple severe disabilities. She doesn't speak, and eats only soft foods mostly through her G-tube. She sure loves frozen yogurt though; tried that the other day ;). With all these awful disabilities that she has, Ginny still has so much potential for happiness in her life. She doesn't respond to me very often, or seem to enjoy doing much, but nail polish is something she really loves.
I just got my Bundle Monster plates and was excited to play with them. Ginny's mother doesn't like her nails to be polished so that she can inspect them for bruises since Ginny does not express pain. I had the fab idea to take them with me, along with Zoya Areej, and Orly SecNDry and stamp her nails! That way you can still see through it really easily, and she gets to have her nails all pretty too. I used BM16 on her left hand for a full nail design, but decided it was too messy since she wouldn't let me push back her cuticles or rub off the nail polish that got on her skin. I moved to butterflies from the BM4 plate for the right hand and that was just perfect!
Here she is holding them out for me while I dry them haha! How cute is that? She has some issues, but every time I see her I am so surprised and amazed at how much she does understand and care about. I'm just holding her hand up here, but I said I was going to dry her nails and started blowing, and she knew what to do!
I said "show me your pretty nails!" Here Megan lol! She's holding my hands here :). I really don't get much affection from her, so this is a big deal! I was strapping her into her wheel chair for a meal one time, so my face was already close to her head. I kissed her on the top of the head and she pushed me away lol. Moody pre-teens!
Here she is all polished and reading her new favorite book. There is a pony on the front and you can feel its hair :D. The cutest part of the whole thing was that she really liked the stamping. She seemed so distracted in between nails, but when I would be a moment from being ready to stamp her nail I'd say "here comes the butterfly" and she'd hold out her hand for me. She liked it!
I tried to make her sign for you guys, but she wasn't that interested, so I initiated by moving her hand closer to her face and I asked her to say "thank you". She blows a kiss :D! Ginny says thank you ladies for loving her pretty nails!!

See Ginny's other polish adventures: glitter toes, Christmas toes, and her final pedi you voted on!

18 comments:

  1. This post made me tear up <3 You are a wonderful person doing a wonderful thing with your life!

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  2. I couldn't have picked a better career choice! I get to feel this way every time I do something like this for work/school. Yay!

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  3. To add to the blog post....I just wish I could communicate to you all how amazing this is for her. She does not react to many things that I do to try and play with her or help her in some way. It's amazing when she reaches out to me, and tells me by doing that that she's enjoying herself. It keeps me going when things get hard because I usually have no idea if she even knows I'm there. :/

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  4. You are so awesome! I want to work with special students once I get my teaching certification. I want to use art as an alternative learning process and this so inspirational. <3

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  5. Yes Amanda that is a fabulous idea to use art! I could definitely help you out with that. I've done like a million activities, and special needs children are my specialty. I actually considered being a Special Eduction teacher!

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  6. You are an awesome person! She is very lucky to have you around! :D

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  7. You are such an inspiration! I wish there was more people in the world just like you!

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  8. There are loads of people in the world like me! I know many of them from going to school in my degree :D. Although some people feel extremely uncomfortable around people with disabilities. I saw someone I knew from a camp I volunteered at and chatted with her mother and her. I knew she liked pretty guys, but I couldn't get Jeremy to come over for ANYTHING. It's like he was terrified he'd do or say the wrong thing and he just had no experience in that situation. It can be hard at first, and so many people feel that way! It's okay if we all have different things we like and don't like, or are comfortable with or not.

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  9. This post made me cry but happy happy tears. I love reading things like this, it reinforces my belief that there are still self-less people out there that aren't out just in it for themselves. You're amazing!

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  10. I think maybe no act is truly selfless, but perhaps this is mostly selfless lol. It does feel good inside to know I'm doing something with my life that helps people, and that is something for me! And that's okay!

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  11. Fabulous and heart-warming. What a lovely child and how awesome are you to have reached her in this way. Much love. <3

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  12. That has got to be one of the touching posts I've ever read. You're an angel for doing this :)

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  13. What a great idea! I also have a degree in Rec Therapy and was a CTRS for years before owning a spa! Your clients are so lucky to have you! :)

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  14. Wow this got me all choked up. What a lovely post :) You just got yourself a new follower. (And not just because I really love rainbows ;))

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  15. Thanks so much Helga! :D You can follow me for this AND for your love of rainbows haha.
    Did you get here from our newest post from today?
    http://paintingrainbowsblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/christmas-toes-with-ginny.html

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  16. My cousin is 13 years old and also has severe disabilities... your post made me wonder how she'd feel if she got her nails done... she does like pretty things :)

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  17. There is no harm in trying Allie! You might want to use a quick dry for a kid who moves a lot or won't let it dry. Ginny always wants to touch it afterwards because it looks so pretty lol. And be conscious of harmful ingredients (3frees are good). I would /love/ to hear how it goes!

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  18. That is so amazing and it made me teary eyed. It's so great you're doing this for her, we take for granted the simple things in life that make us happy like painting our nails. I'm so happy you're bringing a little happiness into her life by doing this :)

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