Unlike many other peers, there is no vacation for Ella-Marie. The next few months are still entirely dedicated to rehabilitation. But just because there is no official vacation doesn't mean that Ella-Marie can't experience fine things! Here is an overview of the previous weeks and a look at the near future.
Lovely Ranya
Oh how happy she was! Ella-Marie received an invitation from classmate Ranya last week. To celebrate the upcoming birthday, a special party was organized. On Sunday, we drove up a small forest road right across from the fort of Koningshooikt. Winding through some fields, we arrived at a pop-up campsite. A beautiful party tent, decorated with colorful flags stood in the middle of a large lawn. From that tent came many happy little faces walking toward the car.
It was heaven on earth for Ella-Marie. Delicious cakes and chips, friends close to her and hugs from classmates. You could see from everything that it pleased her. Dear friend Arne took plenty of time to talk to Ella-Marie. He even offered to ask his daddy to take care of the plastering of our house, because his daddy is certainly the best in all of Belgium! :-) In general, you can see that everyone regards Ella-Marie as part of the group. As a parent, this is really good to know.
Time flew. At 9 p.m., the eyes almost literally fell over and we were asked to drive home. This time it was not a goodbye in tears. With a very affable smile on their faces, the little eyes really got too heavy. The road home was made in silence.
Quality could be better
Another fun trip was the one to the cinema. Together with some former classmates we chose the movie "the little mermaid". In our time" we could still enjoy beautiful drawings, now everything becomes "Live action". But the songs remain the same!
Ella-Marie enjoyed the attention, the movie, the chips ... and the songs. And for the latter, the quality could still be a little better if she sings "Deep in the sea" or "That's my wish" herself :-). Anyway, it was nice to go to a movie like a real teenager with teenage friends.
Our friend Guus
Where the quality does shine off is from the progress of our friend Guus! What a class of that boy! The videos we get through from parents are really encouraging to us. Guus now plays soccer himself back at the G-team, takes beautiful walks and is still progressing every day. Did you know that he even dares to walk an adventure park? Smoothly up a bouncy castle maze to then enjoy the slide. It gives us plenty of encouragement! In August we will also be able to admire him in person. We are really looking forward to it!
Danny The Builder in action
We started working on it! Danny, from Deneve Construct, was enthusiastically ready to enlarge our little house. On Monday, we were awakened around 6:30 a.m. by a small excavator. The stones of the terrace were too heavy to move manually, so these were moved first. Then the grass was excavated and the current stabilizer was scraped off. The first stone had not yet been laid, but that did not take long. Tuesday, the first concrete channel was installed and the first bricks were effectively set Wednesday. The concrete slab itself was placed a few days later and now gives us a first idea of how much space we will be adding.
Friend Danny still follows everything closely. The early morning visits serve to clear things up. One of those things that is now decided is ... our kitchen! :-)
Kimberley from SieMatic
Combine the best of Holland with the best of Limburg and you get Kimberley. A super friendly and energetic young lady who was on board with the story from the first second. After just one conversation, she already knew perfectly what mom Annelies needed in her kitchen. Papa Pieter was particularly impressed, because after 20 years he still doesn't understand exactly how a woman's brain works. But why women are from Venus and men are from Mars, we won't go into here.
Back to the kitchen. Erik Van Looy, renamed Kimberley for once, asked for 5 key words. Scandinavian, practical, wheelchair friendly, lots of space and coziness. Et voila, 't was done! After less than a week, the perfect kitchen was on paper. It was especially fun to just give key words, make color choices and leave the creativity to SieMatic. We could only nod a resounding YES.