October 5, 2008 11:20 PM
Down syndrome event last Saturday - thank you Numbers Thirteen Farm!
Each year, the Blakeley Family holds a special event for families with children with Down syndrome - a gift from them and a blessing to us. Families come from all over northern Virginia - and beyond - for a day of pony rides, face painting, free toys and food, climbing into fire engines/police cruisers/ambulances, petting alpacas, and a tractor ride down to pick pumpkins.
Tripp is still not up for this kind of adventure, so Sophia and I took the Downzers - our affectionate and admittedly non-PC family name for Jonny, Jesse, Daniel and Justin (see Why I Call Them the Downzers)- for a perfect day with a bunch of other families like ours. We had a great time!
In the middle of the afternoon, our host Mr. Blakeley - who'd mentioned when I talked to him earlier that he had served under John McCain - took the mic and read us a moving account about a prisoner of war who'd found a scrap of cloth one day and managed to find a way to produce some natural dyes to make an American flag. To hear how much that meant to his fellow prisoners, the punishment/torture he underwent from his captors when they discovered and destroyed it, and his subsequent determination to make another - moved many of us to tears.
As Mr. Blakeley was narrating, a young man was riding around and around the arena carrying a flag. When Mr Blakeley finished, he announced that that young man was his son, who'd been deployed twice to Iraq and who was about to go again - as a member of the Special Forces.
The flag he was carrying had flown over the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.
What made it even more special was that I got to share those moving moments with Brenda Muessig, who'd found me with my kids earlier at the pony rides. I recognized her right away as Brenda had sent me pictures for the Down syndrome mother/child photo album I did for Mothers' Day 2007. And Brenda had stood out, because she didn't send me just one picture like the other mothers. That's because Brenda and her husband have adopted five children with Down syndrome.
What I did not know was that Brenda and her family live in Virginia. So it was an even happier day that I got to spend some special time with her:
Posted in Down syndrome, My life | Permalink
Comments
I secretly call my daughter my little Downie or my Downie Doll. I guess I should loosen up!
Posted by: Nikki | October 6, 2008 7:28 PM
Oh my that looks like a great time was had by all. And what a neat story about the POW. Thanks for sharing the great pictures.
Amy
Posted by: Amy | October 7, 2008 2:00 PM
