What a Month

It seems like this month has been nonstop.

Laura has been the girl on the go. She was accepted to The Rise School. This is an amazing program for kids with Down Syndrome. The program was started at the University of Alabama. The goal of the school, in Houston, is to equip children with Down Syndrome to be able to be mainstreamed through the public school system. The school in Houston also accepts nonDown's kids (usually siblings) as a way to help spread awareness and acceptance of people with Down Syndrome. I would highly recommend that you sign your child up as soon as you can, if there is a school in your area. Just check The Rise School web site to see if there is one close to you.

Most importantly, Laura turned one year old this month. She is fortunate, in that she got to have 2 parties. Her first one was a pool party at G.E.O. and G.C.'s house. She loves to swim, and had a blast playing in the pool with the other kids (from her class at school plus a couple of other Down's babies at Second). She had a black out cupcake that she got to smear all over herself. I believe a new chocolate addiction was born. The most fun part of the party was when she was done unwrapping all of her presents, she just played and played with the tissue paper. She had us all laughing. That in turn got her laughing, and playing more. That had us laughing even more. You can see where this is going. She slept hard that night.

Her second party was at school. Here she really made a mess of herself. She had icing all over her and everything she could get her hands on. She looks so very pleased with herself. She got Tara good with her icing covered hands.

We just fond out what we will have to pay to have Laura enrolled in The Rise School. It is much less than what we have to pay to have her at Second with Tara. It is still steep for us, but God has provided so much already. We are placing our faith in Him that the money will come from somewhere. Fortunately, we are blessed with a family that completely loves our daughter, and want the best for her. Between us all we should be able to figure something out.

She has had a virus the last few days. I stayed home with her yesterday and we had a blast. We played with some of her new toys, that she got for her birthday. She loves the music table that her Granny gave her. She sat in her chair (G.C. & G.E.O. gave her that one) and we read a story. She is a good reader, and is adamant about helping turn the page.

Tara and I think she may have sung her first song the other day. She has been stringing various one syllable sounds together for a while to form "sentences". Well the other day her sentence had several variations in the tone. This was a first. We have known for a while that she likes music, but to hear her do this was just to cool. We got all excited. Unfortunately, we could not get her to do it again. It is becoming more and more clear that we have an artist on our hands.

Now, I really am not sure what to do. Laura is my daughter. I do not know how to raise a daughter. Not the foggiest clue. I tend to follow Tara's lead. She knows more about girls than I do. Additionally, Laura may have an artistic bent? How do I raise and encourage and artist. Man I am glad I am married to Tara.

The Down Syndrome Association of Houston (DSAH) has scheduled this years Buddy Walk. It will be on November 6th at 1:00 pm. The walk is free this year to anyone who wants to come on out. Laura's Lions team should be signed up by the end of the day. This event is designed to help raise awareness for Down Syndrome in the greater Houston area. The funds raised directly sponsor all the classes, seminars, various events and the community outreach programs that DSAH does through out the year. Basically the money raised by this event goes right back into our community. So please give early and give often.

I normally hate commercials. You can ask Tara, they are probably as close as I will get to something being able to be described as "The Bane of my Existence". I will do anything to get out of having to watch one. So the other day I saw one that actually caught my attention. It was a Pepsi Refresh commercial for a group called the The Sparkle Effect. This is a group that helps schools create inclusion of all students through cheer leading teams. The girls, and the featured team, were just incredible. All I can say is that Pepsi got something right. I can only hope that the public schools Laura attends have kids like these girls in them.

YOU GO GIRL!!!

What an amazing couple of days it has been. The last two days I have gotten to grill. That is always something fun for me. Steaks and chicken. Both are very good. Today I am off of work. Always nice to have some time at home.

Laura is home with me today. Her being here makes the day perfect. So far we have eaten breakfast. We have played with her toys, she is a very good toy player wither. As I am typing we are listening to classical music (Mozart, Bach, etc.). And just a little bit ago she received her very first 1st birthday present.

Last night, when Tara, Laura and I got home we had a message waiting on our answering machine. It was from the director of the Rise School. She asked us to call her back. I called this morning, and had to leave a voice mail. The director called me back about 9:40 am. We talked for a few minutes then hung up. The call was to let us know that Laura has been accepted into the Rise School.

Some people may be asking, what is The Rise School? It is a private school that is focused on helping babies and children with Down Syndrome become everything that they were designed to be. It is a program that was started at the University of Alabama (sorry G.C., Grandma Coleen, but some good things do come out of that university). The school here in Houston is administered through Texas Children's Hospital. She will likely be there until she is ready to start elementary school, which will be around age 6 or 7 The goal of the Rise School here in Houston is to equip these incredible kids with everything they need to be mainstreamed through the public school systems in and around Houston.

When I got off of the phone with the director I was so excited I was shaking. When I called Tara, she said her hands were sweating. Laura's grandparents sounded like they were just short of flying high themselves. This is an amazing opportunity for Laura and we cannot wait for her to get started.

YOU GO GIRL!!!!!!

Where are the loop holes?

Life has been interesting the last month or so. As many of you know, I work at R.E.I. We just had our annual Anniversary Sale. I was in charge of it for our store. So between prepping for training new hires for R.E.I.'s new store in Tucson (which is doing incredible) at the beginning of May, working on Anniversary Sale, all of Laura's accomplishments, Laura's Parent Child Commitment at Second Baptist, Mother's day (a huge success according to Tara, thank God), and at least one hundred other appointments that I cannot remember at this point, it is easy to say I am glad May is over. The words worn out do not even begin to describe how Tara and I are feeling.

For the record, Laura gave Tara a photo album that had twelve photo's in it of Tara and Laura. One from each month of Laura's young life. Laura has promised to update the album every year with twelve more photo's. Laura also gave her grandmothers a framed picture of her and her hand prints. Laura really enjoyed making these, as she got to get paint on everything. Each of her grandmothers teared up. Laura has great ideas for gifts. I wish Tara and I were that creative.

June and July look to be much more simple months right now. In June we have Laura's 1st birthday. I cannot believe she is turning a year old already. It seems like she was only born two days ago. It seems like her heart surgery was yesterday. Now she is just about ready to start crawling and walking. She is starting to get interested in feeding herself. She has been swimming for the first time, and looked like she loved it (there is a video of it on my facebook page). We all had fun with her swimming. We cannot wait for her birthday so we can get in the pool again.

We also have Father's Day in June. It will be hard for Tara to top last year's Father's Day. You see Laura was born before Father's day but after Mother's day. A fact that I choose inappropriate times to remind Tara. And if I happen to point out that it means that Laura loves me more, well so much the better. I am just looking forward to spending some time with my girls. Tara knows this, and knows that is all I want. G.E.O. (Laura's Grandfather, do not ask him what it means, you are just going to inflate his ego) may have other plans, but Laura has an appropriate gift planned for him already. She even thinks ahead. Tara and I are glad she is blessed with skills we do not pocess.

At work, my promotion starts this month. I am looking forward to rolling up my sleeves, and getting elbows deep into my new responsibilities as the new Market Sales & Product Expert for Houston. For those who do not know, this means I am in charge of all trainings for R.E.I. in the greater Houston area. Mike, Brad and I have some big plans, and I cannot wait to get started on making them happen.

In July we are planning a day trip to San Antonio to visit some family. Mr. Green "I promise" to let you know the date. It will likely be a Sunday. In August, the Birthday carousel starts again. I think I am going to enjoy a relatively quiet June and July. I need it after the whirlwind that was May.

Now for a short gripe. How is it that people that make hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars a year can get their disabled kids on Medicaid and SSI, but people who actually need these programs get told they make to much money to qualify? I do not understand this. Unfortunately I cannot blame the current administration for this, as it has been going on for a lot longer than the last 10 to 20 years.

I bring this up because a friend of mine just got the word that he makes to much money to qualify for Medicaid and SSI. He has three boys. His two youngest are newborn twins (one of whom I believe is still in the hospital) with Down Syndrome. His wife is a stay at home mom. Yet, like Tara and I, he did not qualify. He makes to much money. I do not get it! Can someone please explain to me what we did wrong? Surgeons who make millions qualify, but those of us who struggle to make ends meat, make to much money. Does this make sense to anyone?

Where are the loop holes?