Today is Special Kids Day!

I didn't know until hearing about it on the radio this morning, today is Special Kids Day!

I didn't know that Will had a special day specifically for the appreciation of him! I'm going to have to do something special, let him know how happy I am that he is in our life. And I'm not going to assume that the extra chromosome is the only thing that makes him special.

When Will was first born I was so worried about what the impact he would have on our family, about what his potential would be. I had heard and read a wide variety of things. Some were scary, some hopeful. Where would we end up? Everything seemed to ride on his potential, his independence, his ability to learn new things. Would he embarrass his siblings? Will he communicate? While we worried in the beginning and while we curiously wondered for the next while, it was Will who was bring us to our human potential.

I have found, on more than one occasion, that doctors love to make stabs at what your child's potential will be. The most hilarious one was the guy who suggested Will may work in a funeral home, because he will be so loving and compassionate. Well, a parent would love to think that their child will be loving and compassionate, but a career in the funeral business is not what immediately leaps into one's mind as places to apply such gifts. I have read about the mom who was told her child would be clinging and drooling on her arm for her child's whole life. (That doctor needs to hand in her medical licence.)

A doctor would never dream of doing that for a typical child, but if you are born "special" you get a label and lots of presumptions about your whole life. Never is there a mention about how the rest of the family would get a huge boost in the humanity department. Without Will we would all still be so dumb to what our own potential was. Potential is a lot of things, some ordinary and expected, totally unsurprising. Then there is the potential you have no inckling about, that could never surface without the gifts a special kid like Will brings to you.

Will, himself, is full of potential, some of it an instinctual feeling I get, some of it knowledge garnered from meeting other people with DS. I am to the point where I can be smug with the naysayers, no matter how "educated" they come off as, they can be dumb as rocks too.

Will loves so many things about life, no less than any other child. Will draws people to him. Teachers run their hands over his head without thinking as they speak to me. Many kneel down to get a goodbye hug from him. They don't do that with any of the other kids. Will is special because he has the innate ability to expand others humanistic experience in such a gentle and assertive way. He draws out understanding. He can divine goodness in other people. That is a hard job. Most people would be afraid to even attempt it, to try to crack the shells we create in an effort at self preservation. Who would dream of taking on a role like that, especially in this day and age? Will does it happily. At home he can be grumpy and challenge us at every turn, but when he is out, he is smiles and hellos to all. He is the the special person who can stand in the chill of society and find it's warm spots.

Happy Special Kids Day Will, and we thank you for making it special for the rest of us too.