My Poor Blog

My poor blog has fallen victim to evil Facebook! I so often feel like I have a post to make, and then get distracted, and don't make it. Its as if I'm overwhelmed by all the different things I want to post that I end up posting nothing!

At any rate, Fall is arriving here at our house, the mornings are cool and everyone has their official back-to-school cough and cold. Dakotah has entered her Senior year at high school, and has hit the ground running. She is heading off to Leadership Camp in a few weeks, and is busy helping organize that. She is on student council, and student council is very active in her school. This morning, she left the house with lots of "spirit" clothes for spirit day, and is part of her school's improv group that is meeting at *yikes* 7 a.m. some mornings. That means her leaving the house at 6:15, and getting up at 5:30. What a big change from her lazy days of summer where I would finally get exasperated at her at 2 p.m. and tell her "enough already!" - get out of bed!!!

Paige is in Grade 7 this year, and has switched schools, as well as school boards. This means a whole lot of new people to meet, a whole new building, new routines, and lots of new things to get used to, for both of us. So far, it has been an incredibly good choice. The school has been so very welcoming to her, geniunely wanting to learn about her, and to meet her needs. Her classroom teacher seems amazing so far, and is so good at inclusion for her. He has a son with autism, who is quite a bit younger than Paige, so perhaps he is seeing his future in her eyes in a way, and wanting to make her classroom experience positive.

It seems everywhere we go, we are always meeting new people who's lives have somehow been touched in a positive way by someone with developmental delays, or physical disabilities. What a blessing this journey has continued to be for our family.

I took the summer off from my job, to spend with my kids. It was glorious, and in the fashion of Seinfeld's "Summer of George", I lavished in it. It was so nice to be near them every day, literally spending every moment of the summer with Paige, and as many as Dakotah's busy social schedule would allow. We swam and soaked in the sun, and cooked on the barbeque, and went on little road trips, and did all of those things that we wouldn't have been able to do if I had worked. We even watched Big Brother, lol.

So. now I am job hunting, and sort of excited to see what the next adventure in life will bring to me. Always the optimist, I continue to feel as if I have a real purpose here on this great big planet, and know that the opportunity to explore that still lays before me in some form.

I guess that is really the essence of life - to look forward to what is to come, happy to know it will be as awesome as we allow it to be, and sure that we can handle to stumble stones along the way.

One Red Paper Clip!

I'm sure some of you have heard of Kyle McDonald who traded one red paper clip for a house. In just one year and 14 trades, he started with a red paper clip, traded it up for a fish pen, traded that up for a drawer knob, traded that up for a coleman stove, and well...you get the idea.

I think Kyle is a bit of a lamer, who readily admits he started this because he really didn't want to actually hold a job, but his idea took off, and he has had a media frenzy surrounding him. He has also written a book about his experience.

It is a funny story about how imaginative people can be, and how life evolves.

I've thought about Kyle's story, and I think I've traded one red paper clip too.

1) I started with a ultrasound showing no kidneys or stomach in my baby
2) I traded for an amnio
3) I traded the amnio for the knowledge that my baby would have Trisomy 21
4) I traded the knowledge of Trisomy 21 for the arrival of a screaming baby
5) I traded a screaming baby for many corrective surgeries to ensure her future
6) I traded surgeries for Physio, Occupational, and Speech Therapy
7) I traded Therapies for new skills learned like Sign Language and walking
8) I traded Sign Language and walking for even more independence
9) I traded that independence for an admission to school
10) I traded that admission to school for a program specially designed to help Paige reach her fullest potential.
11) I traded that program for a happy, thriving little girl who learned to match her colors and recognize letters and numbers
12) I traded this happy thriving little girl for a girl who learned to swim and ride horses
13) I traded that athletic girl for a cuddly, affectionate almost young-lady whom I adore.
14) I refused further trades.

There...beat that Kyle.

Life Lessons

By now, most of you who keep up on the latest "Down syndrome news" have heard the story of the Italian woman who found out that one of the twins she was carrying had Down syndrome. Desperate to terminate the "defective" baby and keep the one that was right, she begged her doctor to kill the unborn child with T21, and to keep the unborn "perfect" child in tact.

Had this procedure gone off without a hitch, we would have never heard the story. She would have gone on to give birth to her perfect child - remembering the child with T21 only as an unfortunately incident that happened to her.

But...the rest of the story unfolded.

After the abortion, the doctors notified her that, tragically, they had aborted the child without Down syndrome.

Tragically, a chromosomally normal child had been killed.

Tragically, a wanted child was dead.

Tragically, the mother must now undergo the procedure again in order to abort the unwanted child.

And now we read that she is considering lawsuits against the doctors who performed this procedure - having robbed her of her perfect baby.

How absurd that the tragedy is not that two unborn babies have now been killed. Two babies were ripped from their mother's uterus, at her own hands...by her own desire to give birth only to a child she deemed perfect.

Dave Hingsburger writes about the perfect tomato on his blog.

I try very hard in my life to learn lessons from stories such as this. I try to see how God has worked in these matters.

Obviously, it is difficult to see God's hand in the workings of the separate abortions of two equally important, and equally perfect unborn children.

But...He has given us free will. And this woman, by her own hand, by her own free will, chose to initiate these abortions - both of them.

Our Lord does not make mistakes, and perhaps He called the first child to Him as a wake up call to that mother to listen - to trust in Him - to find humility and compassion and hope in the birth of a child with Down syndrome.

Perhaps His intention was for her to stop fearing and start believing - to just put it in His hands and trust Him.

They say that He whispers to us, and if we are busy screaming, we cannot possibly hear Him. Maybe He gave her many, many opportunities to listen - before the first abortion, before the second abortion...yet, she continued to scream and drown Him out.

And now...before another child is conceived, she needs to listen.

And the world needs to listen - to hear this story, and realize that the tragedy lies in anyone's ability to perceive perfection from a karyotype. The tragedy is that we are so full of ourselves that we believe we can control our perfect world by eliminating people who are not deemed worthy to even live.

Hitler did it, and we were appalled. We should be no less appalled every time it is done as the result of a chromosomal analysis.

Ironically, two babies died. And the one who brought the biggest message to the world was the "wrong" one.