Summer is in full swing around here and it sure is nice to be able to sit outside, stay up late, and go swimming. We are lucky to have an employee at the lumberyard that is amazing with woodworking and making things. Brent is truly heaven sent for us as I can explain to him what we need modified for Larkin and he can whip it up and hand it to me within a day most times. Mostly we ask for modification to toys because Larkin is growing taller all the time but she doesn’t necessarily outgrow her toys. Brent has made chairs, ramps, tables, and other items for us and some for us to donate to Developmental Services or to families that can’t afford the high priced items in catalogs, but toys are a regular item we ask Brent to fashion wooden legs for to bring the toys up higher so that Larkin can continue to play with them.
One such item is a water table that Andy’s parents bought for Larkin a few weeks ago. Brent attached wooden legs and now the table is the perfect height for Larkin and her friends to play. Last week I was sitting outside with Brin and we were watching Larkin play in the water. Brin at 6 months is so curious it cracks us up on a continual basis and she was on full tilt watching Larkin while bouncing up and down on me and if sheer will could have bounced her like Tigger over to the table ~ it would have. I switched babies out one at a time so each could enjoy the outside and watch L.
I can’t fully express how much joy I get out of watching the babies and their development. I had forgotten what typical looked like so it truly has been like having a first child even though the twins are numbers 3&4. It hit me very hard that morning as I sat on the deck ~ Larkin’s beauty magnifies our beauty and our beauty magnifies hers.
Watching Larkin’s beautiful strong tanned legs as she moved around the table captured my focus. She has only been walking for 7 months. 7 months. Her sisters are 7 months old and it seems like they have been here forever but I will never take for granted the hard work my amazing girl put into learning how to walk. I am also painfully aware there are parents who will never celebrate this milestone and that is a big reality check for me. I laughed at Brin as she bounced, her equally beautiful strong (not tanned) legs working so hard and I know that crawling/walking are in her very near future.
Back and forth I was watching their bodies in motion, drinking up the spark of life and light in their beautiful eyes. That spark and light the seizures stole for so long but we won it back and I don’t take it for granted because we know it could be lost again at any moment. The beauty of a child that is typically developing is so amazing to me. I watch daily as my girl brings out compassion, support, and love, from most who come into contact with her.
Today at the indoor playground at the First Christian Church, Larkin was trying to follow a little girl up the slide. The girl was probably around 8 or 9 and she instantly began to urge Larkin up the slide, coaching her, cheering her on as she made it closer and closer to the top. She then said to Larkin “watch this” and ran across to another slide and tried to encourage L to follow her up. Of course once L lost sight of her the reciprocal play was gone but the little girl came BACK and kept with Larkin trying to get her to do it again.
The progress that our children with special needs make is so BEAUTIFUL and so TREASURED that it makes my heart and chest ache and my cup runneth over. The friendships made will forever change the landscape of our children’s lives and enrich all of us in ways never imagined.
Together we make each other whole and a community. I take a ton of pictures but here are a few of those friendships that help shape my little love’s life and her doing the same in return
Have missed you but have known you were soaking up the beauty of your life,which in turn made my heart happy.
Beauty and Larkin.Synonymous.
Love, love, love this – like all your posts and musings. But Amy, you’ve given Larkin and the community such a great gift. Not just Larkin’s place, but LARKIN. You have given her to us, and asked – nope, DEMANDED – that everyone see her and all other individuals with special challenges as they truly are – beautiful and bright and striving.
This is liberating, and enlightening, and inspiring. It is a real source of joy.
Where are all of these little friends of Larkin’s? Lily is so lonely without school now. Even though social interaction is hard for her, she desperately needs to be playing around other kids NOW or she will stagnate. She performs when she is challenged and being is special ed in kindergarten took that entire aspect away from her last year — stopped language, stopped advancing in communication altogether, lost desire to “behave” with other children so friendships can be made. Desperate.
You’ve just written the basis of the case for inclusion–she magnifies your beauty and you magnify hers. Without all kinds of people and abilities (and perspectives, and layers, and talents and challenges), we can’t see the beauty and wonder in anything, fully.
I so hear you. What gifts our girls have brought to all of us (wonder, joy, clarity, compassion…).
As we saw in our travels to another part of the world where things are very different, we are lucky to have the support and resources to be able to care for our girls at home, as an integral part of our lives.
The light is bright. Shine on, ladies.