Grace's e's & 9's.....

When Grace was first born and finally home from the hospital, I distinctly remember a moment in time where my mom and I stood hovering over her crib, both just staring at her. Could she hear? Would she walk? Will she ever be able to take care of herself? We were both so overcome with the "what if's" that at that moment we couldn't see the gift right in front of our eyes.

Fast forward to today...Grace is a fiesty, 8 year old girl who just happens to have Down Syndrome. It's our opinion that she will single-handedly change the stereotype of "those children are so loving & good..." When people say that to us these days, we just politely smile and let Grace's actions do the talking!

She is doing amazingly well in school. As a 2nd grader, she is sight-reading 45 words using Edmark, adding sums up to ten using Touchpoint Math, and testing her limits, and everyone's patience, in every possible way.

We were recently asked if we would like to have Grace given an IQ test to determine her eligibility for services. We realize that she has mental retardation, but feel that we don't need a number to determine this. Also, we think that an IQ test could possibly limit teachers' expectations for her--you know, preconceived notions that labels can bring. So, we said, no thanks!

Here are two papers that came home this weekend in her Friday folder. Notice in this one, she has written every "e" in a different color crayon. Her teacher says she loves to do it this way!

And, on this paper--take a look at her name at the top of the page....

She looked over her papers with me tonight and said "You like my papers?" I said, "Yes, I am sooooo proud of you!" I wish I could have had a glimpse of this moment--when we were wondering if she would ever be able to do anything. Grace, we ARE so proud of you!