Ema comes to the Blyth family

Emmanuel (Ema for short) has been with us for 12 days now. For those who don’t know about him, he is 15 years old, looks like a very thin 7 year old, and is something like autistic. He was abandoned when he was two years old and lived alone in the bush for twelve years—we’re pretty sure he could not have made it without a little help from someone, but supposedly he just cared for himself. The whole story is described by SIM nurse Kelly Malloy’s “Emmanuel—Rescued After 13 Years in the Bush.” 

Ema has no speech and does not appear to understand anything except perhaps his name, although he can hear. He shows very little interest in objects or people, but has already been making some progress in those areas. We'll talk about that more later on. In fact, he has virtually no activities other than eating and flapping his hands. Sometimes he laughs, other times he groans. Overall, though, he seems to be pretty contented. With that background, here is today’s story:

Our lives are changing somewhat now that Ema is here. I got up a little early since Ema was already in the living room; we have to listen for the slightest noise like a bumped chair to know he's out of bed. It was Barb's shopping morning so I stayed home with Ema instead of going to work. I can do the same work at home, anyway. But Luke's teacher did not show up, so I had to come up with some homeschool activities for Luke as well. I got to work about noon.

Ema's multi-purpose therapist Lynsey went to the house for a session at 3 pm, but it seems Ema was not in a mood to do anything. I gave Simon, Luke's physical therapist a ride to our house after work at 4pm, and we all worked through some new exercises for an hour. After that, I took Ema outside—a new routine to get him out of Barb's way while she cooks dinner.
We walked around the compound road once (while I read my Kindle!) then sat in a garden swing for half an hour while he just sat on my lap, pulled at my face and glasses, and was quiet for periods of time. I tried reading at first, but gave up and enjoyed the quiet, the clouds, and the cool breeze. Not many such beautiful afternoons here as this one.


Simon had dinner with us, with Luke chattering constantly throughout--he gets more voluble with guests around. Then we played a round of Carcassonne, taking longer than I had expected and pushing the kids 45 minutes past their bedtimes. I could barely contain Ema as we brushed his teeth--he's incredibly agile and strong when he wants to escape, and his limbs are so thin that it's hard to get a grip on them. One good thing, though, is that Ema goes to bed without any problem whatsoever. Anyway, they're finally both asleep and it's nearly time for us to follow. Even I the late owl am going to bed earlier now that we have Ema!