Being Up With Down Syndrome

In this early hour I woke up and made banana bread for my children.  Snow flurries are falling and I feel a great need to hibernate with my three daughters today.  Just teaching, learning and preparing for the Thanksgiving Holiday, with a little Christmas Spirit starting to weave through my house. So many people suffering right now, so I quietly stop to listen to what God wants me to pray.  Four friends going through chemo for breast cancer.  I have learned and am still learning a lot about beauty, under terrible circumstances.  Baldness!  A woman's crowning glory is her hair?  Nope.  It is her battle with the evil of cancer and proudly showing, yes, I'm in a battle and my spirit is winning.  Even if...the physical battle is lost, the closeness to our Creator is branded into our souls and our hearts just find the wonder in the simplest kindness.  A smile, a laugh! Who helped make a terrible day a doable day.  A simple look from a husband to a wife.  A surprise bouquet to just

I like to wake up before Looly (Kate).  I like to pray and read a positive quote or two while drinking a fresh cup of coffee.  When I hear Looly begin to stir, I get her a fresh cup of milk.  She can successfully drink from the straw.  I sing good morning to her every morning that I get her out of the crib.  My daughters do the same if they get her in the morning.  I change her diaper and she drinks some milk.  She then takes off running in the livingroom.  Back and forth to get her energy out.  Then it is breakfast time.  We start our day either chauffeuring someone to class or if we are blessed to stay home, we start our schooling.  As the girls do their work, Looly is learning to use a pencil and crayons.  Just to see her make a mark on paper gives us joy.  Her vocabulary is very limited, so communication is difficult somewhat.  She knows some sign language but stubbornly refuses to use it much.  That is the world of Down Syndrome no one speaks of, stubborn. I watch as each child i