Over the last four years, we have had many "Aha" moments. Moments where we suddenly understood what other families experienced, and how it could feel to love someone who processes the world differently from nearly everyone else. In the first 24 hours after we found out the possibility that Wade might have Down syndrome, I thought in leaps and bounds, covering territory I had never traveled before. I remember thinking, "So this is how other families feel when they have a child with a disability."
I wondered how other families ever rose above their grief to go on with life. Did they always carry sadness with them as they did the grocery shopping, and the car pooling, and all the other daily routines? Did they wish secretly that their burdens would just go away? Did they forever wonder why life had singled them out for this job?
Today, after living four years with Wade, and after meeting many, many families with similar circumstances, my questions now have a different form: What grief? What sadness? What burdens? And why did our family get so lucky to be chosen to learn such wonderful things?
And I am so happy that I cannot keep my moments to myself, but I must share them with you because, after all, saying "Aha!" by myself really doesn't sound nearly so well.
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