Complete Circles: Buddy walks and Reece's Rainbow

And the second post...also still the same feelings!

   
Posting twice in one day, after nothing new for months, shocking, I know!  I wrote earlier today, about my daughter & her pony and my love for all things EAAT.  Our events of today actually inspired my thoughts of posting about how certain life events are recently coming full circle, and hopefully now continuing, round and round.  Since Josie and Mr. Bean were really the first of a few events, I wanted to start there.  But today was pretty amazing and completed a couple different circles.

    Today was the National Down Syndrome Society – Buddy Walk for our area. Our local organization F.R.I.E.N.D.S., hosted the event in our beautiful downtown park area.  (You can learn more about NDSS-Buddy Walks and FRIENDS, by clicking on the links over their names.)  It was a gorgeous day.  The weather was great.  There were bouncy houses,

farm animals, balloon animals, music, everything a 5 year old girl could ask for at her park.  There were couple of things that made the day extra special, though.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I was involved in EAAT for many years.  The organizations that I worked for over all of the those years were very involved in all of the local special needs organizations.  We often set up booths at the Autism Walk, transition fairs, and of course, Buddy walks.  I spend many years standing at a table sharing with families with kiddos with Down syndrome, how great EAAT is.  (I also enjoyed watching kiddos, that were current students, romp around and happily come to

the table to say hello!)  I enjoyed those events a lot, as it was great to see those kids out of the element of the barn and get to spend time with them while experiencing other activities and day-to-day life happenings.  I loved sharing about what we did, but also loved just being with those families.  Even as a bit of an outsider.   Well, today, we attended the Buddy Walk, but this time, I was ONE of those families.  My child with Down syndrome romped around, bounced in the bouncy house with friends from school, fed goats & cows & ducks, danced the chicken dance, and walked a lap around the park with hundreds other families, celebrating their children

and loved ones with Down syndrome.  She left with a full belly, a purple kitty balloon animal, a bag of extra goodies and a whole lot of exhausted happiness.

   While there, she saw and greeted her Pre-K teacher, who’s childless and simply came to enjoy the event and see her students outside of the school walls, to see them in a different element and celebrate with them.  (She’s an amazing teacher, by the way.  We LOVE Miss K.  I am SOOO happy Josie is repeating another year of Pre-K and will blog on that another time!)  Today, my life again came full circle.  After all those years of Buddy Walks with other

families and their children, today, MY family walked that park with full hearts and my beautiful daughter.

   As an added bonus to our Buddy Walk event, Josie and I hung out at none other than, the Reece’s Rainbow table!!  (So, yes, I did still kind of sit behind a table today, but as a completely different experience!)  I got to meet the boy who started it all and his A.Mazing Mama!  I think I was more excited about that then I realized, but of course, I couldn’t let my “I’m more excited than some dopey kid meeting their favorite celebrity” excitement show, so I played cool.  It really hit me after we got home and well, as I started to write this post.

   Today, we met Reece, who without hesitation, warmly welcomed my daughter with a big hug (and a big cheese for the camera)!  

 He’s a happy, busy boy who shares the love of the bouncy house with Josie.  He’s the reason my daughter is sleeping under the same roof as me tonight. Without his existence, there would be no ‘Rainbow’.  But the other end of that rainbow is his wonderful Mama, Andrea.  She knew what an amazing blessing she’d been 

given with Reece.  It’s a bit surreal to think, that without Reece and his Mama, I may not have Josie.  I know it’s all God’s plan, so I can’t say what exactly would or would not happen, but Andrea ‘saw’ my daughter before I did.  She saw a child who needed a family and she shared that child.  Because of her, almost 2000 children are home, with their families.  Blossoming, thriving, growing, LOVED.  It was a pretty amazing moment to hug the woman responsible for giving my child a chance at a life.  And even more amazing for my child, who would not have been seen, hug her honorary Auntie, who saw my girl, shouted for her, loved her and helped bring her home.  

Ultimate completed circle…right here…

Complete Circles: A girl and her pony

This is one of the first posts from the old domain, still just as true today!

    
   Most often you hear people talk about circles with no beginning and no end, which is true, once they are made.  But to form a circle, you originally have to have started at one point and your circle is complete when you arrive back to that point.  Now, once you have made a circle, yes, it is not easy to define where it began and where it ended and so then, it becomes a continual loop… as the saying goes, with no beginning and no end.

Recently, in our lives, Josie and I have seen the completion of some pretty awesome circles.  And hopefully now, the continuation of some great moments, memories and friendships.  This week, my girl had a pretty great ride (& workout afterwards) on her favorite pony, Mr. Bean.  I shared a picture on Facebook of a sweet moment between the pair, who can both be quite sassy in their own ways, but who have this sort of bond that you just can’t explain.  As some of you may know, I spent MANY, MANY years in the Equine Assisted Activities and Therapies (EAAT) world.  I had a countless number of students that I fell in love with, that I watched grow up and learn and move on to great things.  Teenagers who turned into adults, toddlers who are now in high school, families who will forever be a part of my life.

It was a great world and I loved it.  I still do. I miss it.  Fiercely.

   BUT, I took a step away for a moment to expand my own horizon.  And five years later,

my life has changed in ways I could never have imagined.  One of the greatest of those changes came in the form of a brown eyed, brown haired, squishy baby girl.  She has since turned into a sassy, spunky, loving 5 1/2 year old!

Earlier this year, I made a few calls and found a barn to hopefully begin some hippo-therapy for my little goose.  We made the first visit, her evaluation and she’s been riding away ever since.

    I must admit, she doesn’t always love being ON her pony but she DOES love taking care of her pony  and just hanging out at the barn.  She started riding the sweetest little white fluff of a pony named Bebe. Tolerant of anything and everything.  Bebe is a kind and gentle soul.  She was just what my initially anxious little girl needed.  Bebe was the best start to Josie’s riding experience.  Now Josie rides this spit fire of a little pony, Mr. Bean, and he’s the best thing for my spit fire of a daughter. She pulls him around on the ground, drops his rope, gets in his face and he just follows, stands and tolerates.  Now, if one of his grown up volunteers

were to try to get in his space and pull him around, he may, in a not so polite manner, tell you to leave him alone.  He gets Josie and as much as she thinks she’s bossing him around, I think she gets him, too.  They have this mutual acceptance and they work so well together.  She loves her Bean and if I could read his mind, I’m pretty sure Mr. Bean thinks pretty fondly of Josie, especially when she has carrots.   

     After sharing the photo of Josie and Mr. Bean, I noticed how many of the ‘likes’ came from those people that I had spent so many of my years in EAAT with.  It certainly brought me to a completed circle moment.  After all of those years, seeing the joy on the faces of parents as their child trotted for the first time, held the reins for the first time, said first words, first steps, accomplished better grades in school, completed tasks at home with pleasant attitudes, all of those moments, in OTHER peoples families, that I was blessed to be a part of.  I get that same joy now, with my OWN daughter.  And let me tell you, it has never felt better.  This is probably one of my favorite circles.

I love this girl and her pony and their special bond.

Familiar locations and new places

Almost two years ago, I attempted to revive my blog in it's own location.  After only a couple posts, it took a seat on the back burner.  We've had such a rollar coaster couple of years but I'm going to attempt this blogging thing once more.  I posted our last update – an overview of my girl’s first year home, multiple summers ago.  When I was switching over to the new domain, I started with this post: 

For the past two years, I have been privileged to parent the most amazing little girl.  I often use that word to describe her, I should probably check with a thesaurus occasionally, but she really is A.MAZ.ING!!  I shared a lot of the happenings of our first year together and how quickly she adapted right into our family.  This past year has been such an adventure – We’ve moved, moved again, started new schools, added more friends and explored so many new places.  Josie continues to progress like a rock star.  She’s growing so much, both developmentally & physically – FINALLY…as in, she went from 24 month sized clothing last summer to 3T sizes this summer.. Holy growth-spurt batman!!  She really grew a lot taller and her feet have tripled in size!  (Of course the addition of some fancy new orthotics helped that a little, but 

even with out her “farm shoes”, as we call them, she still needed a new shoe collection over the past winter and into summer!  We thankfully, found a Stride Rite outlet store and the Mama splurged on some great deals.  (Thank- you discounts and clearance sales on already outlet prices!)

Josie has started a few new therapies and is 

undergoing some testing for some probable additional diagnoses.   She’s also had some testing done to rule out some health issues or rather determine what some issues may be and what our best steps to treat are.  She’s handling everything like such a trooper.  With the revamped blog, I will continue to update on J’s health and the changes we are making to improve her health and give her the best possible potential for great behavior!  Josie has been loving our recent move to a bit of a smaller area in MD.  Our move to the state was great for both of us, but we originally landed in a pretty large area.  A little too large for our liking.  We, of course, needed and wanted to be in a larger area that would have better services for the goose but we went from about 12,000 to a population of nearly 112,000.  And WOW, it was a bit overwhelming.  Our recent move, a little further west in MD, put us in the perfect middle of just over 60,000.  We are a quick drive to the major cities and great healthcare options and in a great school district for the girl.  We definitely feel like this is home.

I’m excited for our new adventures here and am looking forward to continuing to share those adventures with all of you!

   It's so amazing to read those thoughts and realize another two years have gone by!  It surprises me whenever I think about it, but Josie will have been home for FOUR years this summer!  Where has the time gone?!?  I will add an update post to the blog, but am going to also add back the few posts made at the old domain over the past two years. Then, from here on, this is the blog space to see.