Thursday, October 9, 2008

A Tale of Three Moms

Within the last week I have had the privilege of meeting two other moms of boys with Down syndrome in Twin Falls. The first was a mom I have known for quite some time. She and her husband have an adorable son with DS who is now in kindergarten (and other sweet children as well.) She had heard of our adoption plans but we hadn't seen each other since our trip to Ukraine. She was absolutely delighted to meet Caleb and I reminded her that her family was an inspiration to me as we were facing so many negative reactions to our plans to adopt a child with Down syndrome. Her comment that "every family should have one" rings in my heart.

The second encounter came just 2 days ago as Caleb and I were meeting my parents for lunch at Burger King. A young lady was helping several small children out of a car and asked me how old Caleb was. She told me that she also had a son with DS who is just 6 months old and mentioned what a surprise he was since she is only 21. She and the children with her sat right next to us though the restaurant was certainly not crowded. I got the feeling she was observing Caleb. Of course, he was hungrily scooping mac and cheese into his mouth, chatting happily with Papa and Grandma who just dote on him, and overall just being his cheery little self. I kind of purposely talked about the form I have been trying to fill out for Caleb's speech therapist (trying to identify words Caleb seems to understand as well as those he says totally on his own) and the special needs support group we attend monthly. And I very warmly and wholeheartedly congratulated her on her son and remarked how cute he is. No pity. No 'bless his little heart' I'm HAPPY for her. As she was preparing to leave, she came over and told Caleb good-bye. I hope we were as much a blessing to her as my friend and her family were to us earlier in our DS journey.

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