Now, Wh Did You Have To Go Scare My Like That??

Mark took a vacation day today and we went to the mall with Natalie and Victoria for a few hours. Natalie had taken some 4-year-old photos with our family photographer earlier that morning before we headed to the mall for lunch. When we arrived at the mall, I engaged in the normal ritual of putting Victoria in her stroller and strapping her in. While looking at some shoes in Dillard’s, Victoria wriggled free of her seat belt straps and I saw her standing in the seat of her stroller. I was surprised she had gotten free, but buckled her back in and we continued our leisure stroll through the mall. Our next stop was to a little store called Petrie’s. They have lots of cute little things that can be personalized, amongst jewelry, etc. There are tons of things that girls love if they are into being “girlie!” Anyway, we were looking at some cute backpacks and lunch boxes to get the girls for next year. I had Victoria in her stroller and had just looked at her and talked to her. A few moments later I looked at Victoria’s stroller and there was NO Victoria in the stroller! I felt myself immediately go into a panic! I called out for Mark who was a few feet away looking at something with Natalie. I yelled, “Mark, where’s Victoria?? She’s gone! She’s not in her stroller!!” We began looking around the store where we were standing for her. Then, without even thinking I ran out of the store still holding the unpurchased book bags in my hand calling out for Victoria. I saw Mark stick his head out of the store entrance and I turned around long enough to throw him the book bags so the owner of the store wouldn’t think I was stealing them (this is comedy relief in this story, I guess!). I then started running around looking for Victoria. An older lady close to the entrance of Petrie’s said that she had just seen a little girl walk right past her by her all by herself. I asked where she was and she said, “Well, she’s way down there by now (she was pointing back toward Dillard’s).” I went into even more of a panic. A few moments later, after continuing to call out for Victoria, I finally heard her jabbering and saw a shadow of her walking around a table area close to me. I breathed a sigh of relief. I was thanking the Lord that she had not gotten so far away from me that I couldn’t find her.

Oh Victoria, why did you have to go and scare me like that??
January 26, 2011
  0 COMMENTS

Growing Up

Victoria is now 34 1/2 months old! It is hard to believe that in March she will turn 3! At times, it feels that the almost three years we’ve had Victoria have flown by. Right after her birth, however, the time probably felt like it went slowly because of the transition we went through as a family.

We have seen Victoria progress in so many ways. Lately, she is really trying to communicate verbally more and more. I’m seeing her shape her mouth and tongue differently than I’ve ever seen her do before as she “speaks.” She is exploring new sounds that her mouth can make. I’ve been praying more lately that God would help her in her speech and I definitely believe that my prayers are being answered.

I wanted to share a quick video showing Victoria “talking” to me tonight. I’m not always sure what she is trying to tell me, but I love that she is “speaking” with confidence and SHE knows what she wants to tell me!

Once again, I’m blown away at God’s faithfulness. He has never failed to walk this faith-journey with our family!

January 17, 2011
  1 COMMENT

A Dream?

I was woken up in the middle of the night by a horrible stream of screams coming from the baby monitor in Elyssa and Natalie’s room. I always said that Natalie could star in a horror flick as a star screamer and this middle-of-the-night episode confirmed that once again. Natalie was screaming and crying. I waited for a few seconds to see if she would calm herself down in case she was having a bad dream. She didn’t, so I slowly woke myself up enough to crawl out of bed to head toward her room. Once I got to her room, I kneeled down by her bed and gently placed my hand on her shoulder in hopes to calm her. I asked her in a soft voice, “Natalie, are you okay?” Immediately, she responded very passionately … “I WANT CHINESE!!”

Go figure!

The only thing I can come up with is that maybe Natalie was dreaming that we were at the mall and she was wanting to eat at the Chinese restaurant there. Needless to say, she gave me a good laugh although she woke me up from a very deep sleep!
December 30, 2010
  0 COMMENTS

The Playground

I had just picked up Victoria from Mom’s Day Out (at our church) and we walked over to our church’s Christian School to wait for Elyssa and Natalie to get out for the day. Since we had some time to kill, Victoria and I went out onto a small playground that is right beside the school building so Victoria could play a little. Kathy, one of the the custodial staff at the school who just happens to have Downs, must have seen me and Victoria on the playground through the double-glass doors. She came out to the chain-length fence and said “hey” to us. Kathy LOVES to see Victoria (see my previous blog titled “She’s Like Me” to get the full story on Kathy and Victoria’s encounters). I walked Victoria over and told her to wave at Kathy. She blew her a kiss instead! Victoria went on playing and I stayed by the fence to talk to Kathy.

I was amazed at the depth of the conversation between Kathy and me during those few moments we talked. Kathy told me that she understood how I felt. She said that her mom went through the same things with her that I have gone through with Victoria. She said that her mom had therapists come to her house to work with her when she was little, too. She told me that she can do more than a lot of Downs folks can. She said she can hold a job and has for many years now. She said some “DS” people cannot do all that she can do. I told her that I knew that. I asked her if she was as active as Victoria when she was little. She laughed and said she probably was.

Next, she asked me something that I had to ask her to repeat. She speaks very clearly … so it wasn’t that I didn’t understand what she said. I was just taken back by her question. She asked me what I thought of Victoria since she has Down syndrome. Can you imagine? A 30-year-old woman with Downs asking me how I felt about my own daughter because of her disability! I almost cried. I knew how, at one point when Victoria was first born, I felt sad to have a special needs child. I knew that I had grieved over having a child that was “different.” I thought back to all of those emotional times as I thought through how to answer Kathy’s question. I couldn’t bring myself to tell Kathy about all of the thoughts I struggled through in those beginning days. But, Kathy’s question made things come full circle for me. It made ME wonder … how did Kathy feel knowing she was different as she was growing up? What types of emotions and thoughts did she or does she have about being a special needs child/adult? It made me realize, again, that I need to always be sure I build ALL of my children up with encouragement, even my special little girl. So … after a ton of things flooded through my mind, I answered her. I said, “Well, I think Victoria is pretty special.” I told her that I love her and know that she is a big blessing to our family.

It was a real ironic moment. I think God has allowed our family to have contact with Kathy to see all that Victoria CAN do. Not what she CAN’T do! I think the thing that I always have to remember on this journey is to push Victoria to be all she can be. I want to treat her as “normal” as possible. I want her to accomplish much in her life. I don’t ever want her to make excuses for herself just because she has Down syndrome (and I don’t ever think that will actually happen because our little girl is SO determined!).

I think I will be blown away by all that Victoria will accomplish in her lifetime. And, I know that I always want her to feel loved and treasured. I want to help her reach her goals and see great things for her life.
December 18, 2010
  2 COMMENTS

Follow Heather