Waverly is 9!!!

November 21, 2012

Waverly is 9!!!

My sweet girl turned 9 years old last week. She had a day full of celebrations. She started her morning with a birthday party in her ID classroom. I outfitted her with a birthday crown, because it seemed appropriate. After lunch she had another birthday party with her 3rd grade class. I brought in cupcakes for all of the kids and they presented her with a lovely birthday card.

All of the kids signed the card and there were a few photos inside of Waverly with her classmates. It was one of the sweetest things she has ever received. A huge thank you to her 3rd grade teachers and her students for doing this for Wavey.

We ended the night at a favorite local diner, where Waverly had a birthday milkshake. We got her a little wind up toy that plays music and has some movement she loves it.

I anticipated an emotional day, but instead it was full of love and celebration. I am so thankful she has so many people who love her at school and wanted to celebrate her in such special ways.

Happy Birthday, Waverly!! I cannot believe you are 9 years old.

Comments

Pamela said…

Happy birthday, Waverly! Sounds like a wonderful day, filled with gestures of love from those who know you. It doesn't get much better than that :)

November 28, 2012 at 1:29 AM

Kathryn said…

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WAVERLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! <3

November 30, 2012 at 2:03 PM

Welcome to Holland

By Emily Perl Kingsley

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland.""Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.