Dragons for Valentine's Day

At Melissa's annual IEP meeting, her "team" sat around a large table in childsize chairs to discuss her progress in school. I am thankful for a group this year who have all seen and appreciate who Melissa is, underneath her autism. We went around the circle to share her strengths. Some tears were choked back and some authentic awe was expressed. We all spent time brainstorming about how to encourage her to engage with her friends, since we have become aware that she is longing for some. There were several good ideas and my heart was comforted knowing that she has the support of some very bright and dedicated adults.
That night at home, I invited Melissa to join me at the table to create some homemade Valentine cards for her class. The list was long, 29 kids, most of whom she has never interacted with for more than a few minutes. She sat down gamely and we began an assembly line. I cut and pasted, and she wrote the kids name and drew a dragon for each child on the envelope. I do so wish I had been able to get a scan of those dragon sketches...each one was different and so vividly portrayed what she thought and felt about each child.
Some kids had elaborate dragons with embellished hearts and swirly letters. Some kids had ferocious dragons with lightning bolts and muscles. One kid's dragon was wearing a hoodie. There were even a few not so flattering depictions of kids who must annoy her. I hoped the art would outweigh the interpretation.
It took us two hours, and Melissa stayed with it the whole time. She said to me "the kids will like my art and it will be wonderful." We stacked up 29 envelopes and tied them with red fuzzy pipe cleaner.
The next day at work I got a tearful phone call from one of Melissa's speech teachers. She had visited the classroom after Melissa had visited to deliver her cards. She said no less than five kids approached her to show her what Melissa had made them. They told her they were going to hang the drawings up in their rooms. They asked when she was going to visit again.
I choked up and thanked her, and spent the next five minutes staring into my computer screen, visualizing Melissa making friends.
Bless the Valentine Dragons.