Oct 12 2008
Welcome Visitors from This American Life!
Back in 2006 my son, Tim and I had the honor to be on the National Public Radio show “This American Life”
Karen Sosnoski had attended IMDSA’s 2005 Conference in Houston and during our banquet I told a little about our life and how I had kept the information of Tim’s mosaic Down syndrome from his teachers and from him.
The reason I did this, is because when the teachers did know about his mosaic Down syndrome, they would treat him differently and not expect him to do any work in class. He would get away with unacceptable behaviors as well, which would result in him being singled out among his peers.
The reason I kept the information from him, until he was 14, was because we didn’t want him to use it as a crutch to get out of doing things. In second grade he had told me he couldn’t do his homework because he had ADHD. I thought, “Wow! I wonder what he would try to get away with if he knew he had extra chromosomes!” So, my husband Glenn and I chose to keep the information from him for a while until we thought he was old enough to handle the news maturely.
Last Thursday, Karen emailed me and said that “This American Life” was going to re-run our program. They wanted to know if we had any updates.
Sure! I have loads of updates! However, my “updates” keep overflowing in my life, so I didn’t have time to send them in!
I didn’t realize that they were airing the program today until I did a quick check on my blog to see my stats and realized I had loads of searches about that radio program! I looked and it aired today!
So… I will update you here….
Tim and I are doing great! We took a “sabbatical” from life for a while. Sometimes you just need to do that when you are overwhelmed. We are planning this week to look at college options for Tim at the community college that is about one hour away. Tim still writes his stories, but has yet to complete one. (the great part of ADHD…trouble completing things)
Tim has matured a lot in these past couple of years. He is an intellect and always has been, but now, his thoughts are becoming more realistic than before when he was thinking like a child thinks.
Even with our “sabbatical” he has been very busy. As we speak, he is with his grandfather helping him build fences on their property and yesterday they build a loft in the barn. He also has a small lawn mowing job that helps with his extra money and in turn he is helping our neighbors who are older and can’t really mow.
And, Tim is so compassionate and takes care of us probably way more than we take care of him! I have a very bad back, so I can’t get around as much as I used to. Tim is always considerate and if I even look like I am walking differently, he is the first to notice and will immediately take care of my needs. Last week, he and his dad went south of Houston to begin clean up after the hurricane. Unfortunately, Glenn’s back went out on the first day (yeah… maybe we are getting old! lol) so he was flat in bed for the week. Tim to the rescue! He cleaned up all the broken trees that were left in his granny’s yard and at the same time made sure his dad was ok. When they came home later in the week, Glenn was still stiff and trying to bend to put his socks on. Tim immediately grabbed the socks and helped his dad put them on. I thought back on those days, years ago, when the role was reversed and it was Glenn who put on Tim’s socks. To me…. it was a beautiful scene of love and compassion.
As for me, I have started this blog as well as another one to help those who are leaders of nonprofit organizations. You can see that here.
I am happily still the president of International Mosaic Down Syndrome Association and am currently working with a great group of people to plan our 09 Research & Awareness Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio. You can find out about this conference here. Yes! It is for ALL forms of Down syndrome!
I am writing a book right now…. but that is as much as I can tell you about that….
Our youngest son Garrett is fastly approaching teenage-hood, regardless of my objections. And the rest of our boys (Arron, Dustin and Stevan) are all doing well in their independent lives.
If you have come here after hearing our story and you have questions….. PLEASE ASK! I will do my best to answer them for you and I don’t mind at all!
If you have come here and you are a regular visitor or just stumbled upon this little corner of the world…. you too are always welcome to ask questions!
If you don’t ask—you won’t know! That is how I became the person I am today! I asked alot of questions to alot of people and although I don’t have the answer to everything, nor will I ever have the answer to everything… I know a heck of a lot more than I did before I asked!
Thanks for stopping by!
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