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May 17, 2008
One of Nathan’s actual verbal words is, “WOW!” I said it too when we went to Lilacia Park in Lombard on Friday with Miika’s preschool class. She was not cooperating with me for photos…just wanted to run and play with her friends. So Nathan and I went around looking at the tulips and lilacs. It was the perfect day—the kind that we endure the last wicked, cold days of winter for. This little park by the train station is truly a jewel and a feast for the senses. What a treat.
I’ve been thinking lately about how much of a treasure Nathan is. When he was first diagnosed I struggled with blaming myself for his Down syndrome…my age, why wasn’t I a better vitamin-taker, etc. Ironically, a few weeks ago as I was driving the kids to Nathan’s pool therapy, I read an ad on a bus that said something about taking supplements of folic acid to reduce birth defects. Ouch!! But I always have to go back to the early morning after my ultrasound when I woke up to the name, “Nathan.” This happened a few days before I knew the results would indicate a heart defect. That morning right after I heard his name in my head, I went immediately downstairs and opened the name book right to “Nathan” which means “God’s gift.”
Humanly speaking, Down syndrome seems like a physical “mistake.” But in the grand scheme of things it’s not. Because of Nathan, I am on a mission to make life good for him as he grows up. He is not a mistake. God planned him along with the rest of creation to be exactly who he is. Nathan is all about sunshine. In fact, he loves the song, Mr. Sun and asks us to sing it at least five time a day by doing the hand motions that he learned in playgroup. He sees the shape of the sun in everything and signs it for us all the time. He has a sparkle that charms perfect strangers daily. He’s my little jewel box of surprises.