They'll shine in their own time...

I posted a video 

of Lexi on my

Facebook last week.

Sweet girl is rockin'. 

She started walking 
at 18 months
and now she is
walking down 2 stairs
without a railing.

Lila started walking when
she was a month shy
of her third birthday.
I'll never forget the day.
 

If I sat and compared them
on their walking skills alone,
Lila would  come up short.

Here's a video of
Lila when she was
5 months older
than Lexi is today. 

Lexi has about 
10 words/signs
that she uses
and only about 5
of them are consistent.
She cannot identify
one letter of the alphabet. 
She's too busy running
around to bother 
with much else. 

Two girls,

both with Down syndrome,

raised in the

same family,

are very different

from each other.

**************************************

Recently a nice lady 
said to me:
You should meet this
little one with DS!
He/she uses over 20 signs
and he/she is  2 years old!
His/her  mom is amazing!
She works with him/her all the time!
And he/she is so smart!!  
  

Obviously I am not revealing

the sex of the child that is

being referred to in

this conversation.

It's not relevant information.

What's relevant to me

is how those words

hurt my feelings.

Left me feeling defensive.

I almost said,
"Well, I try to work

with Lexi but she won't

sit still long enough to

really accomplish anything!"

But I didn't.

I just said,
"Oh, really?  That's awesome!"

 

 I'm sure...

 the mom is amazing,

 she works with the kid a lot,

and the kid is smart. 

I'm also sure that

there are a lot of moms

out there who are amazing,

who work with their kids a lot,

whose kids are smart.

Their kids may never use 

one sign, much less 20.

And their kids may never 

speak a word.

It doesn't make them

less amazing...

the moms or the kids.      

*****************************************

I used to think

that Lila was so advanced

in speech at a young age

because of me.

Because I worked with her a lot.

And while I'm sure that had 

something to do with it,

it was mostly just because

that is what Lila's forte was

at the time.    

********************************** 

I love this quote from
The Water Giver:

“Motherhood is about raising 

and celebrating the child you have, 

 not the child you thought you would have. 

 It's about understanding that he is exactly 

the person he is supposed to be. 

And that, if you're lucky, 

he just might be the teacher who turns you 

into the person you are supposed to be.”

And these scattered lyrics
from the song "Shine"
by Rachel Coleman.

"Sometimes I see you stuck
for such a long time.
A daily nothing new...
pretend I don't mind."

"You'll shine in your own time."

"You've taught me in your
lifetime more than
I've learned in mine."


And substituting the names of my girls
in the next part...

And Lexi will do what Lexi will do 
when Lexi's ready to do it.
 And Lila will do what Lila will do
when Lila's ready to do it.

And they'll do it...
in their own time.
They'll shine...