I call her Pooh Bear. She turned nine on March 20th. She came to live with us when she was 13 months old. She had a spiral fracture of her left humorous bone, and she was terrified of everyone that came near her. The only thing that would comfort her was Barney videos. One night things were a little out of control, Timmy (He has since changed his name to Mike but he was Timmy then) was acting out, Christian was cranky, Christy was upset and so was I.... it was getting kind of loud. Christy looked around and said, "Where's Cindy?" we all stopped and searched for her, we found her in a corner of the dining room singing the Barney Song "I love you, you love me, we're a happy family." to her Fuzzy Kitty doll. It sobered everyone up instantly.

I get a little passionate about people who think it's OK to bash Barney. Barney is an imaginary friend to millions of tiny people who, in some cases, have no friends at all. Barney helps kids move from babyhood to kindergarten. Moving on from Barney is an easy step for them, when they're ready. Dumping a purple dinosaur is a heck of a lot less traumatic than some of the other confrontations with reality they will have.

Cindy wouldn't let anyone touch her without crying for about a week. We discovered that she felt safe in a playpen with her Fuzzy-Kitty and we could get close to her if she was in her safe place. Christy was the only one Cindy would let near her for about three months. Every night I would lie on the floor and every night she would let me get a little closer to her. I remember the first night she let me touch her, she just crawled over and put her head on my arm as though that was what she did every night.

Cindy would stand in he playpen and watch everything that happened in the house. She never took her eyes off strangers. If they got to close she would smile at them, if they tried to touch her she would scream. Cindy still smiles at strangers, she smiles when she is unsure of the situation she is in, she smiles when she is afraid. She still seems to have a hard time dealing with situations that she didn't anticipate. When she is safe, at home, she is...well... I remember a little Nursery Rhyme that comes as close to describing her as anything I could write;

That's my Pooh Bear.

Cindy loves to read and she will often go into her room and read a book. She likes school and works hard to do well, there are some aspects that trouble her but so far she is persevering. The ballet class was a bomb like swimming, gymnastics and soccer but she seems to enjoy her Hip-Hop dance class, She is with her friend Barbara and that makes it safe for her I guess.