Dylan's life has been like skipping rocks - he's the rock and as the years have passed, the ripple affect of his existence has gone farther than we ever imagined.
I can't imagine life without a son with Down syndrome. Maybe it's because he was our first born and we've never known parental life without it. Some have beat around the bush and essentially asked if we would prefer a Dylan without Down syndrome. The answer is simple - NO. That may come as a surprise to some, but it is the truth.
Life with Down syndrome is messy and complicated. I never want to sugar coat how life with Dylan truly is. Yes, our red head is sweet and loving, but let me tell you, he's stubborn as HELL (pardon my language) when he wants to be and it typically occurs at least three times daily. Sometimes those moments of stubbornness come and go quickly, other times they last from sun up 'till sun down.
Getting him through those difficult moments is hard. Rob and I are constantly tagging in and out when we are managing these moments. "Patience is a virtue" takes on a whole new meaning in our home.
But when we look at the bigger picture - a huge lake that has had a single rock skipped across it and see the ripple affect of that single rock span across the lake, every single moment of heartache has countless moments of joy.
The ripple effect of Dylan's life is in constant motion...
Just this evening, Rob received a text from one of his very best friends. Rob had a conversation with his friends sister, who works in the field of special needs. Yoko, Dylan's service dog, and the organization we got her from had been discussed. We found out this evening that this gal was able to share this info with a family who had been looking for years for a service dog and will now be getting a service dog, something their son desperately needs.
Another example of the ripple effect is our decision to think outside the box and place Dylan in a private, Christian school, in a full inclusion setting. But when that decision was made, it meant moving all of our kids. The other wild things were thriving in their school, but we stepped out in faith and uprooted them all. Doing what was right still brought a sense of guilt.
Uprooting them from such an amazing school was HARD, yet we knew God was asking us to step out in faith and trust him. We stepped out and WOW, just WOW. By attending the new school, we have come to meet new families who have children with significant special needs - and these families and classmates are those of our other kids, not Dylan. Had we not mixed things up, whether or not our paths would eventually cross is unknown.
Our wild things and the children from these special families have meshed beautifully, largely due to the fact that our kids have had life long exposure to those with various diagnosis'. And up until now, these families didn't know about Camp Attitude - now they do! Rob and I are also connecting with new, local parents who "get it", something that can be hard to find. The past three months have birthed incredible conversations and new relationships that are flourishing.
By stepping out and choosing a different school path, we are also growing our community. With very little effort, we are further educating the community around us about special needs. Honestly, that was the last thing on our mind when decided to branch off from the traditional school route for Dylan - we knew it would happen on some level, but not to the extent that is actually taking place. Bottom line - we did what we did for purely selfish reasons. We were done with the roller coaster ride of public school special education system. We wanted a completely different education path for Dylan - his needs and our goals for him were our driving force, nothing more. Yet, with each passing month, we meet countless individuals who are getting more acquainted with our boy and all that brings with it. Everyone is being stretched, everyone is growing. Cool things happen almost daily.
We are just shy of sixteen years of living life with a side of Down syndrome, yet we already have life long friends that span the globe and stories for a lifetime. My mind truly can't comprehend just how far and deep and wide the ripple affect of Dylan's life will be, but watching it unfold is memorizing.