Saturday, October 26, 2013

isolation...

Yesterday I learned that people believe if they were to have a child with special needs this would isolate them.  I have learned through this experience that it is not true, at least for us, at least not with Down syndrome. If someone decides to boot you out of their life because you have a child with special needs then who needs them anyway right?  I haven't had anyone do that to me  (at least not that I can tell anyway).  If they did we must not have been close enough for us to feel it. I personally get more  invites because people want to hang with Leighton they say- your bringing Leighton right?  If I think its not an appropriate place to bring a two year old their like- Umm where's Leighton, its not as fun without Leighton here! (Oh Hi!  Hubs and I are here though... alright I get it, I know were not as awesome)  She's a pure ball of joy walking around and most people cheer up when they notice her. I see smiles out of the corner of my eye, and overhear comments about her.  So I end up talking with strangers all the time and I actually get more human contact and conversation when she's with me. When I'm without her people usually ignore me and go about their lives because I'm nothing special.

If the worry is about family and friends not being able to "get it" when they need advice, help, or support. They most likely won't, but guess what? Your not the only one out there raising a child with special needs. You actually will have a massive amount of new friends waiting to meet you and to help you  navigate through it all and completely understand how you feel.  So in the end you make a whole new community of friends you never would have met without your awesome child.


This Picture of Leighton I took because she had sorted through about 100 stuffed animals and paired these to up and brought them out to play. She had just watched Mickeys Twice upon a Christmas and the first little story is Minnie and Daisy in an Ice skating battle. She does smart stuff like that all the time, and I know I shouldn't be surprised, but for a girl who doctors told us would very likely be unintelligent we notice a lot of little smart things all the time. 
-JS

1 comment:

  1. Seems to me real intelligence is joy in living and loving, kindness, and caring. Most of us never obtain that level of intelligence or ability to manage our lives in that way. Fear is not being able to watch children like Leighton and not having the humility to learn from them.

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