P is for Possibilities 31 for 21: Day 25

I am having a hard time tonight writing this post.  I can’t find the words to say what I feel.  P has been for passion, pessimism, prayers, pictures, patience and now possibilities.  I guess I have so much I am thinking and feeling, but unable to articulate what it is I want to say. Is that how my Katie feels at times?  You know she wants to say what she is thinking, but it doesn’t always come out when she wants it to.   I look at her and in my eyes I am pleading, talk to me, say what you are thinking, only to be met with those beautiful soulful eyes and silence.  This isn’t to be misunderstood with her actually talking.  Her teachers tell me that she is quite talkative in class.  She babbles and says words and she knows what is going on, but if I ask Katie a question, it is very rare that she will just answer me back.  How was your day Katie?  Silence.  I love you.  Silence.   Sleep ok?  Silence.  Some days the silence overwhelms me.  Other times it is just what it is.  I wouldn’t trade my daughter for anything.  She is full of possibility and I believe there will be a day when she is asking the questions instead of me.  The Lord showed me how full of those possibilities she was those first few months of her life.  When I think of those things she struggled with and things she still struggles with, it hurts me, but I know she doesn’t see it as a struggle.  She knows no different at this age.  She just keeps trying over and over.  She is my inspiration through and through. 
I think of how people write our children off because they hear the word Down syndrome and they automatically label her.  They haven’t allowed her the possibility to shine, to show what she is capable of.  I get so tired of people writing you off at first glance.  I hate when people look and the instant label is put on them.  To be fair, I have done it many times too, so please don’t think I am exempting myself from this statement.  Their clothes are secondhand—oh they must be poor.  Their house is a mess—oh they are slobs.  They talk funny—they are uneducated.  I use to think people were so rude when you would speak to them and they wouldn’t speak back.  Now in my wisdom I know it is probably because they didn’t hear me or their minds were occupied on something else.  My mother is so hard of hearing.  I have to go around and tell everyone, if she doesn’t respond to you, she isn’t ignoring you, she can’t hear you, talk louder.  Yet people who don’t know her have already labeled her in that one instance.  How many times has someone looked at my Katie and then looked at her again and instantly made up their minds about her?  Far too many I am sure, but I am going to try my hardest to stop labeling someone just from my first image of them.  You know the old saying about first impressions…they count the most, blah, blah, blah….Well, I am going to go for second and third impressions too!  Extend the same courtesy to my daughter too if you don’t mind.  You’ll be a better person for it. 
Think of what the world would be like if we allowed ourselves to be open to the possibility of always finding the good in others.  To those who have accepted my daughter just as she is, thank you from the bottom of my heart.  Thank you for seeing my daughter exactly as she is.  Thank you for not judging and for allowing the possibility of her beautiful soul with her extra chromosome to shine through her into you. 
Passionately believe in what you are doing, let nothing hold you up in your work, and one day at a time the impossible can become possible.  I am passionately believing in the possibility that our children will be given all the same chances as everyone else.  Change always starts with one person.  There are moments in life that change you forever and my Katie’s birth is one of them for me.  I leave you with a quote….
Never judge a book by its cover because the story inside could be the one that changes your life.  You need to take time to look inside and give it a chance.