“See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.
Matthew 18:10
Maryland's Special Olympics was held just this past Friday, May 2nd. My son competed in 2 events. The 50 meter dash and the softball throw. I was very excited for him and he seemed very excited himself.
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| Jordan meeting Jordan |
When I first saw Jordan he came up to me on the bleachers and he hugged me and gave me a kiss on the cheek, all on his own. He was introduced to his buddy, also named Jordan, to walk him to his events and help him focus on what he should do. As they were walking around the track to the first event I had a good eye on them. But when they got to the event I lost them in the crowd. His teacher called one of the aids to tell him to tell us that we could come down to see him compete, but when we got there we couldn't find the Jordans. Finally we spotted them, and Jordan had already raced and big Jordan was trying to get little Jordan to stop running in circles so they could wait for the next event. I was upset that I missed the race because that's the event I was most excited about, but I was happy he placed 3rd and as long as he had fun in the race, I'm okay with it. It was more for him than for me anyway.
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| Waiting for the softball throw |
So we wait for the next event and take a few pictures. When the event started Jordan was not focused very much and wanted to walk about. At one point I think he thought it was another race because he tried to run. But once we got him in position, he threw the softball really well. He placed 2nd. So I got to see the process of him getting the medal for this event. They called the kids who placed, walked them over to their 1st, 2nd and 3rd place markers, and put the medals around their necks and took pictures. Just like that is was all over. We walked back to the bleachers and Jordan had his lunch.
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| Jordan & Jordan |
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| Waiting to throw |
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| Tossing the ball |
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| Receiving his medals |
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| Family |
Once he got home he was very protective over his prizes. He wouldn't let people look at let alone touch them. He held on to them for dear life. I would like to say he was proud and understood what he did in order to receive them. I am so happy he got to experience this. As a parent you want your typically developing child to excel in all areas of life and most times when you have a boy, you think of the football and basketball games your child will eventually be a part of. Never crosses your mind that you will have a child that won't be able to do certain things. And when you have a child that has special needs, 9 times out of 10 sports is something that your child won't be a part of because of the developmental delay they have. It's hard for Jordan to understand that when you add 1 to 1 you are going to get 2. It's going to be 100 times harder to explain to him a football play. But for him to have the chance to do something related to sports, and get acknowledged greatly for his ability to follow the direction of his P.E. teacher for the past few weeks and come in 2nd and 3rd place, makes me the proudest mom ever along with all the other parents and family members out there supporting their own.
I'm so glad that God has laid it on my heart to have the passion for special needs kids that I do. It gives me so much joy to engage with different kids with different "abilities" and teach them on a weekly basis. Every Sunday I look forward to my children coming in and putting a smile my face because I have put a smile on theirs. Autism is such a huge part of my life now and even though I'm trying my best to recover my child from the diagnosis, I'm glad it has played the part that it has in my life. I have so many things coming into play in my life because of. Watch out for me!
What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.
Matthew 18:12-14
