Cameron's Birthday

Today is Cameron's birthday. She is 12! She came downstairs this morning and told us it was snowing - which it was and still is - beautiful big flakes, piling up. Wow. Kind of a "once a year" thing in our area.

I always reflect on the birth of my child on his/her birthday (remember I have five, so I get to do this five times a year.) I think about how they looked the first time I saw them. The love that made my heart overflow when I looked in to my baby's eyes for the very first time. But Cameron, my first baby, is different. Different because she was the first and I had never felt love the way that I felt it when I had my first baby. And different because she has Down Syndrome. My first few months with her were very different than what most mothers experience. I stumbled a bit the first year, and it took me a while to find my way. She was a wonderful, happy baby. She didn't stumble. She worked hard with therapists and me to hit her milestones. It took her a lot longer to do what most babies do, but she did smile and sit, and everything else that babies do.

While I am not a person who cries, (really, I am not) today I cried. Not in sadness, but in wonder. Just like my two year old looking at the snow coming down with wonder and awe, I too get misty-eyed at how much Cameron has grown these 12 years. And the growth that has happened within me.

Last night as we were helping Alex (6 year old) with his Guided Reading, Cameron sat down on the bed with us. On my bedside table was a new book... something I picked up at a store on sale... a children's book. She opened it up and began to read it. Slowly, but surely, she read the entire book. It wasn't at a first grade level - or at the level Alex was reading - it was more advanced... words like 'whisper' were in it (hard to sound out...) - and she read it. She read the entire thing -15 pages or more. And she got it. She understood that the small bear was handing out cakes to each of his neighbors in red paper bags. And at the end, there were two cakes left, one for him and one for his mama. She read it. I didn't know she could read. I know she has spelling words that she studies each week, and sometimes she gets 100's and sometimes she doesn't. I know she has a great memory. But I didn't know she could READ.

Just like her first year of life, Cameron, slowly but surely, can handle any hurdle that comes her way. Her birthday is a great day to remember that anything is possible, as long as you're willing to work at it.

Praise God for little girls that turn 12, that can read, that have special gifts that most people can't see, but that I know. Praise God for snow on her birthday. Praise God for the little joys and the big hurdles that when we work hard, can be overcome. Praise God for the gifts that He has given us... even when at first we don't understand why we were chosen to receive them, but in time understand that they are more valuable than what we asked for in the first place.

Stay Strong.
Mecca