Beautiful

http://www.raisingsmallsouls.com/wp-content/themes/179/aschool012008.html

Every parent of a child with a disability should read this.

Unlimited potential.

Some people might see this and think "So?" So what, she is a mail deliverer. She isn't an executive. What she ALSO isnt is...unemployed. She isnt...unhappy. She isnt....in a job she hates. She isnt...on welfare. She isnt...negative and angry.

She is making it. She is working in a job in which she takes great pride, one she enjoys. It probably pays pretty well, and Im guessing the benefits are better than any *I* have ever had. She understands her work, knows her contribution matters. She LIKES it. Isnt that all ANY of us really want?

So, if my kid grows up and works at McDonalds, or bags groceries...will she be "less than"? Do you ever eat at McDonalds? Do you bag your own groceries? The point is, our kids can dream big, they CAN succeed in the bigger world. They CAN have jobs that fulfill them. WE are the catalyst. Raise them to believe they can be just like Joy in the video above. Then get out there and MAKE it happen.

Carson inspires me

http://homepage.mac.com/vproux50/iMovieTheater29.html

check him out!

Alina Looks West

Alina Looks West

In her eyes
there is sadness
and hope
faith that something better
awaits.

Outstretched hands
grasping to hold on
invisible lifeline
cling tight baby girl

jaw is set
resolute
mom and dad
will come for you

Artemovsk is home
but only for awhile
home is where your eyes are
home is where your heart is.

Home.
is where you are.
Safe, loved, claimed.
Ava is home.

Ready set....cry

George's sister shares

I should do this more often! Friday I had lunch at McDonalds and got to watch George in action. He has worked at McDonalds for 10 yrs. and when my children were young we use to go quite often to watch Uncle George at work but in the last 5 years or so we have seldom gone there while George was working.

Just some history, George is my brother and he has lived with me and my husband for 28 of our 29 years of marriage. My mother died shortly after our marriage and my father was diagnoed with terminal cancer six weeks later. George has Down Syndrome and is soon to be 47 yrs old and I am one of his sisters and am 5 years his senior.

As I sat down just inside of the play area and I could see George cleaning up the tables of napkins and wrappers. He is very efficient and serious about his work. The room was filled with young mothers and very young children, (school age children being in school) running amuck in the play equipment. I watched as George talked to mothers asking if it was ok to throw some things away and all smiled at George and called him by name as they answered him. (It seems that George is well known to these young mothers and their children) Later I watched as he handled a pushing match between two 4 yr. olds. I started to stand up afraid that the mom would take offence to George telling her son not to push but she came over and made her son apologize to the little girl and to George for having interrupted his work!!! Then a mother asked George to get her 2yr old out of the play equipment (he had climbed up too high to reach.) and George was soon quickly bringing the child down the slide.

I sometimes forget how much things have changed. Attitudes are so different now and I rarely need to educate adults anymore. Kids are still kids but George is such a great ambassador for himself and for future ds adults that I even seldom have to educate them when George is around.

I also forget that George has a whole world of experiences that I know nothing about. Every day he goes to work he meets hundreds of people and they meet him and I know nothing of those encounters but the few glimpses I get when I visit or the many times we have been out together and a stranger will walk up to George and greet him as an old friend. They all know about me, my DH and my children. (George tells everyone about us and shows pictures!) When we ask George how were things at work today all we get out of him is okay.

I wish our parents had lived to see how good George’s life is. They fought so hard to change the hearts and minds of people, always with patience and facts and kindness, (even when they really wanted to sock them) and to see how wonderfully George has been accepted just makes me cry! When my mother was dying she wrote me a wonderful letter (someday I may share it if there is an interest) and in it she expressed her concerns for George's well being and the future. George was still in high school when she died and she never got a chance to see how it all turned out. Well it turned out just fine.

George's life is full of love and friendship and respect. What more could any parent ask for!

_________________
Sister of George,(47yrs, ds)

Saw this post on a board I visit often, and was so touched by it. The love and respect is almost palpable, isnt it? I asked permission to share it here, and have asked to see the letter the mom had written as well. I have long had such an incredible sense of gratitude to the moms and dads who went before us and paved the way. We owe them a debt of gratitude. Imagine this mother, dying before she got to know how the story ended? I know that is my worst fear, to not know how Ciarra's life will turn out. I want to be able to look at her life someday and sit back and smile and know all the tears and the battles and the love were worth ten times what they cost us. I want to share George's story as much for his Mom as I do for him and his sister, or for me. I hope she is looking down and seeing that He made it, he is ok. She must've done one heckuva job raising her children, because you can feel the love a hundred miles away. Thanks, Wisha.

The Letter
This is the letter I received upon my mother’s death, I was 24yrs old and George was 18. My sister and brothers each received a letter. Each was very different and spoke to my mother’s understanding of each of her children. I offer you this letter with the hope you see that what we say to our children can greatly impact on who they are. My mother, though her words has guided us though our lives.

My Dear Felicia,

How can I say “goodbye” to you – my “happy little huntress”? (This refers to my name Felicia Diane which means happy huntress) I have loved each of you equally but each in a different way because of your different needs and individuality. You have always been my “soft” one – too sensitive – too caring. But with all of that, you have a great strength and the will and determination to do the things you must. Like grandmother Brownewell, there is an iron fist in your velvet glove!

I shall be forever grateful to you – you have eased my mind and brought peace to me by your love and willingness to care for George. You – perhaps more than the others – understand that has been the nightmare in the back of my mind; the fear of someday leaving him. Thank you my darling for loving him as much as I do and giving me the greatest of gifts, your love.

I am grateful for the years we have had together and the deep understanding we have had between us.

I hope you children will always remain close and keep in touch with each other – love each other as I have loved you all.

I have no great philosophy to pass on. I hope that you will live your life so that there will be no regrets and that the words honor – duty – honesty – and love are as important to you as they were to me, and to my parents and grandparents. Few of us were ever wealthy but our credit was always good and so was our word.

I have little to bequeath except my love but I love you very much.
Mother

Meet Kaia

Could you remember all of these signs? Not me. This little sweetie pie has an incredible signing vocabulary, not to mention she is cute as a button!! Thanks, Lacia, for letting me show her off. She is AMAZING!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

My Favorite Child

Found this video today on youtube, and gosh how my heart broke. In all the beauty of this loving and gentle video, there is so much heartache and so many awful images of what life used to be like, when our kids were sent away as little children "to be with children LIKE them". The portion of the video inside the group home will stop your heart for a minute, watching the boys, many of whom have DS, makes you want to break the door down and bring them home. And yet, those boys are middle aged men now, long lost to the ravages of life away from their families. I see his face as a little boy and I see so many familiar faces, faces of children I know and love today. I can't help but see in them who he might have been. No doubt this family adored their son. It was just how it was done then. Tonight, I am thanking God that this is not how it is done now. And that my child and all the others will have the chance to grow up loved, included, belonging. There is the same spark in the baby and little boy Dwight that there is in my girl, that sweetness and innocense. I am grateful that I live in today, when we no longer send our children away. But I am sad for us too, because now we just make the awful choice not to let them be born at all. Who is roght, and who is wrong? All I know is that I thank God for my daughter, genuinely, deeply, that He entrusted me with someone so precious. Hope you enjoy these videos, I did.