There is always HOPE!

This post was initially set for October 27 and it was left in a draft. I have decided to continue my blogging and continue my journey. This year is especially important to me because Willie, my second oldest, is graduating High School this year. It is a little bitter sweet because Willie has Down Syndrome. Why this changes anything, I don't know but it does. You see Willie LOVES school. He has loved it since the day he rode his first bus ride in Overton, Nevada. As I cried, he waved good-bye and because he had a "disability" he qualified for extra learning. I would dare say that the people around Willie learned a lot more then he did, Willie has a social IQ of his current age, but academically he just has never caught on and really wasn't interested. But he loves people, he loves creating things and he loves people.

This is his second year Wrestling. He knows the days of week because of Wrestling, he knows when the tournaments are, he remembers more about wrestling season then he does 1+1. But what makes Willie's situation unique is his coach. Coach Lowry includes Willie. He expects Willie to run, to keep up, to do everything all the other kids are doing and that is WHO Willie is and Who Willie always will be...

After practice yesterday Willie told me he had a wrestling meet today. And it was a 2 hour bus ride away from home. I wanted so badly for Willie to participate with his team. I wanted him to have the opportunity to be normal and feel normal for just a moment. Society says these kids will never amount to much, they won't be able to contribute to society, but the one thing society forgot--- society forgot to write the training manual on raising children, and I definitely didn't receive a manual on how to raise my son with Down Syndrome & ONE ARM. But yet, Coach Lowry has made all of this possible. Like myself, we don't see his inabilities, we see his capabilities and you know what... WILLIE got on that bus with his team, WITHOUT his MOM, and he rode 2 hours to North Sevier to spend 30 seconds on the mat with a "typical" kid with an ego who slammed him around and didn't give Willie a chance. And in the end Willie popped up, crowd cheering, he went and shook the other coaches hand and smiled the whole time.

Being Willie's Mom is amazing, trying, funny, tearful, joyful, beautiful and I am so thankful to Coach Lowry & the whole Canyon View WRESTLING Team for giving my Boy a chance at creating memories he will never forget, but mostly ones that this MOM will never forget and will forever cherish in my heart.