MOSAIC MOMENTS

Today, I am going to share with you one of those “Ah-Ha” moments in life. We all have them, or at least I hope we do. This is the moment between “Oh my gosh, will my baby be OK? What does Down syndrome mean for my child’s future?” to that big sigh of relief realizing that all those worries you once had you now know are unfounded and that ”Yes, indeed, your baby will be OK, and so will you!”

Cindy over at Three Syllables shared her “Ah-Ha” moment with me. This happened to her when Gabe was just 6 months old. He is now 3 years old and has a bundle of energy and a billion-watt smile.

Gabe was six months old and I was very unaware of what his abilities would be.  He was a very typical 6 month old.  But even typical 6 months olds don’t show much progress in the intelligence department.

We were attending our local high school talent show and my son Chet, was singing a song, accompanied by my daughter, Dana, on the piano.  The two had practiced the song over and over for weeks.  I was often sitting in the living room nursing Gabe while they practiced.  He never paid the least bit of attention to them.

The show was about half finished when Gabe needed to nurse.  I checked the clock and figured we could make it.  You see, when Gabe nursed it was a forty minute process.  Gabe nursed twenty minutes on each side, with NO interruptions.  He even cried during the brief transitions of switching sides.  Less than ten minutes into his meal Chet and Dana came on to perform.  Dana played the introduction and when Chet started to sing Gabe tried to sit up.  I thought he had just wiggled away and tried to reposition him under the light weight blanket.  He resisted, pulled at the blanket, and struggled to sit up.  I sat him up in my lap and he intently watched the stage for the entire four minutes of the song.  As soon as the song ended he laid back down to resume nursing.

I was stunned.  Gabe had NEVER allowed his meal to interrupted short of the forty minute mark, not for anything.  It was very apparent to me that there, in that strange place, he connected very strongly with something familiar and seriously out of place.  That connection was stronger than his need or desire for food.  At that moment I knew that he was in tune and aware of both the familiar and unfamiliar.  I felt like Anne Sullivan when Hellen Keller signed “water”, and she announced, “She knows!”  Gabe knew his family. 

I also knew that I could not put limits on what Gabe’s intellectual boundaries would be.  So, even now, when he is almost three I don’t assume that his failure to communicate his thoughts means he doesn’t have thoughts and I continue to provide the input and wait for him to reveal the depth of his understanding when he is ready and able.

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