A new chapter….

Yesterday was Jonah’s first day of private speech therapy.  We’ve not done therapy, outside of school, for several years….mainly due to Jonah’ s health.  But we’ve decided that we need help….mainly with activities of daily living (which for an almost 13 year old male child includes shaving, zit cream, and screwing the top back on to the toothpaste tube).  So, we’ve entered the world of private therapy once again…

And Jonah did amazingly well at speech therapy yesterday.  It was a bit frantic….I met Jonah at the front door as he got off the school bus, took his bookbag and handed him a snack and a drink, and hustled him right back out the door for the drive to therapy.  Jonah ate his snack on the way there, and I was relieved to know that he wouldn’t starve to death before we got home to eat supper.  He did well for the therapist….walking down the hall to the therapy room without so much as a look back at me….when did he grow up so much?!?!

As I sat in the waiting room with the other moms and kids I had the opportunity to “observe”.  And again I was reminded of the blessing that is the reality that we are “only” dealing with Down syndrome with Jonah.  As moms tend to do, we started chatting among ourselves.  We talked about our children, the services they were receiving, we griped about school systems… pretty much the norm when you get a group of moms together who have special needs kids.  Then Jonah returned from therapy and immediately went to the toy table and started playing with the other kids.  I spoke to his therapist, and whenI went to round Jonah up, one of the moms stopped me.  And asked me how old Jonah was….I was frozen, with a deer in the headlights look on my face, I’m sure.  I HATE this question….and have on many occasions been tempted to just lie, and shave a few years off Jonah’s age.  But I didn’t.  And this mom, who moments earlier was becoming an acquaintance that I could pass therapy time with….got the deer in the headlights look about her.  Jonah’s Down syndrome didn’t faze her.  His shockingly blue hearing aides went unnoticed.  His coke bottle glasses were accepted as normal….but she couldn’t believe how small he was…and was very quick to point out that HER son was only 6, and larger than Jonah….

Why is it that size matters?  Obesity is frowned upon, and from personal experience with family members, I can say that obese people ARE treated differently.  And for some insane reason, our society treats little people differently too….sigh….it’s always something isn’t it? 

And I hustled Jonah out the door, and didn’t even mind that I still have to boost him in the van (since he’s too short to do it himself) and buckle him up (since he’s not strong enough to pull the seat belt over himself and buckle it up).  Who cares?  I was thrilled with the first day of therapy….and thanking God that Jonah walked himself to the van…..many other of those children there yesterday didn’t have that luxury.  Thank you God today….for the blessing of Jonah…