“My husband asked me to schedule him a doctor’s appointment. This was rare. He never asks for that. He found a hard mass on his right testicle and needed it checked out immediately. ‘The doctor will see you now,’ the receptionist said. Once in the room, the doctor confirmed the news.”
‘I received a text. ‘Have you ever considered adoption? I have a friend looking to place.’ I said, ‘I wish!’ When my husband came home, I pulled him close. This was not a coincidence.’
‘I was told it was the ‘Cadillac of disabilities.’ His pediatrician even said, ‘Out of all the heartbreaking disabilities, his is also heartwarming.’ Down syndrome isn’t easy. We ARE special.’
“I’m here to call us out on all of our mild-mannered modesty. I’ve realized we ARE special, and we deserve that title. No, not everyone can do it. You are different. Your child is different. I am tired of wearing the martyr mask with an ‘aw shucks’ and a ‘not little ol me.’”
‘I didn’t think anybody would miss me if I was gone.’ Her daughter planned to commit suicide. She left goodbye letters. She was ready to leave the world.’
“As her mom sat across from me, we both had tears streaming down our faces. I asked if I could write my student a letter to be delivered to her at the hospital. ‘My daughter would love that,’ she said. I wrote cards to every one of my students, over 100 of them.”
‘I’m a Christmas Eve baby. My birthday didn’t have the greatest timing in the eyes of others around me.’
“When I met my husband, do you know what he did on that first birthday we spent together? He wrapped my presents in Christmas wrapping paper. He learned pretty quickly to never do that again. No Santas or snowmen, please.”
‘When he was born I heard, ‘Oh my God. He has RED HAIR!’ I paused. ‘No, just wash him a few times.’ The nurse washed him 3 times. ‘No mama, you’ve got a little ginger.’
“Trust me, I was shocked too. I can’t count how many times I had to explain he wasn’t adopted, wasn’t my stepson, and wasn’t albino. That I was his mom – not the aunt, Godmother, or the nanny.”
‘The doctor was staring up my vagina with a flashlight. ‘Whoa! He has some really blonde hair.’ AND I JUST KNEW. My husband smiled. ‘He’s an albino.’
“We should’ve realized there was something extra special with him when nurses were coming in to see the ‘baby with the white hair.’ It was so white it would sparkle in the sunlight. My mother in law stared in awe and said, ‘He’s like a special little fairy.’”
‘I asked my 95-year-old grandfather to dance with me. I have never seen him smile so big in my life. I wanted to live in this moment forever.’
“When my grandfather saw my tears, he asked me why I was crying.”
‘Hold me, Dada’: Stepdad ‘promises forever’ to stepdaughter during emotional wedding ceremony as he ‘marries’ her too
“He has kissed her booboos, rocked her to sleep, cleaned up throw up that went all down his shirt. He has been her constant.”
‘I’ll never forget that first homecoming’: Military dad breaks down in touching photos capturing father-daughter bond before she goes to college
“Some nights sleeping is hard. I think a lot about the past 17 years and how quickly they have gone. Shelby was born just prior to the 9/11 attacks. I was off training and then deployed to Iraq.”
What this mom of kids with special needs wishes people wouldn’t say to her
“I SEE YOU. Not just the special part. THE WHOLE PART.”
