Oh So Thankful

My mother and I often joke that I have a "thing" against old people. I always reassure her that at the very least, when my mother needs the companionship and assistance, I will pay for the best care available.

I admit it, I have limited patience for those who are too needy or overly negative in their approach to life, as you often see in the elderly.

I also admit, with some sense of shame, that I have issues with those who are limited in their capacities in other ways.

Today, a client brought her affectionate and moderate-functioning Downs Syndrome son to the office, for a Chiropractic adjustment. I actually accomplished an exam and treatment, with lots of effort from me and his mother to work around his preferences and fears of the unfamiliar. I so admired this boy's mother, her approach and caring for him; I could not even begin to understand how she and her husband and their other (healthy) children live with this situation every day.

When I was pregnant, I would sit on my porch in the early morning hours, unable to sleep past 5:30 am. Every morning, a group of Downs Syndrome high school kids would pass by on the street below, shouting and gesticulating, and every morning, I would momentarily burst into tears and pray. Pray that the child in my belly grow to be healthy, and yes, pray that she not be encumbered with physical, mental or emotional disabilities. It will already be hard for her, having started out in a so-called Alternative Family, she doesn't need anything else.

I thank G-d every day that Raphaela is healthy and happy, and feel so grateful that I never had to contemplate the possibility of aborting a child who would be challenged.

We do, however, seriously need to work on her aversion to sleep. Perhaps she gets it from me, this need to experience life to the fullest, and at all hours of the day and night. Now I pray that G-d grant me the resources and patience to raise her, to become the person she is meant to be in every sense and to learn the lessons she must, without limitations.