It's often difficult to get a strong positive reaction out of Ellie. The last several months I have tried  often to get more than a 'meh' reaction out of her. I am often concerned about her mental state, afraid of the path her negative emotions seem to be leading her down. I've been working hard to point out the positive, trying to help her see that not all things in life are made up of annoyances, disappointments, and rejections.

Ellie loves books. She does not love all books. The books she reads need to be girly, low stress, with characters she is generally familiar with. But when she finds books that fall in within her criteria, she will read them over and over again.

We received a postcard in the mail a month ago advertising a new library opening. The grand opening was last Saturday. I had a long meeting in the morning, and had forgotten about the library. I walked in the door, greeted by a distraught daughter, upset because I arrived home an hour after the ribbon cutting. I'd had long morning, arriving home to a messy house, and was not in the mood to go, thinking of all the other things I still needed to do that day. But gratefully the thought crossed my mind that this was important to her, so I (grumpily) told her to grab her stuff, and she, her little sister, and I moodily went.

The library was small with limited parking, so we had to park at the church down the street. The place looked packed, which generally can raise Ellie's anxiety levels, but we soldiered on and went in.

As soon as we entered, the peace and happiness that radiated from Ellie made everything worth it. We did a little tour of the main level, surrounded by beautiful, new, never checked out books and movies. We went upstairs where there were cookies and flavored water. There was a balcony we could walk out on. Back downstairs the girls found books by there favorite authors they hadn't seen. The staff were giving out to tote bags with oranges and little jars of marmalade. Ellie was in heaven. I hadn't seen her so pleased in a really long time. She was thrilled with everything.

With all the stress of life, last Saturday's grumpy trip to the library will stand out in my memory as a bright light and gives me hope for the future.