First Day of School

This story is personal to me – it’s about my sister and her family.

My baby sister is pretty awesome. She’s a NICU nurse and has worked with and saved the lives of many tiny, very sick babies. She’s worked in Georgia, California and Texas as an RN and my eyes widen when I listen to her stories of the experiences she’s had at work.

We were thrilled just over six years ago when we found out that she was expecting her first baby. When the day of the big “gender reveal” ultrasound came, we were on high alert. Would it be a nephew or a niece? But the excited phone call never came. Hours passed after the appointment time and our phones where quiet. There was no big news on Facebook. We were getting concerned. Turns out there was good reason for concern.

Before we heard the good news that the baby was a boy, we heard that there was something abnormal. No one was exactly sure yet what was going on. But I remember my sister sobbing on the phone and saying, “I never imagined that I would hear a doctor tell me that Down syndrome is our best case scenario!” Some of the baby’s bones were not measuring correctly. Specialist appointments were made. And the big question on everyone’s mind, although not on our mouths, “Will we get to meet this baby boy?” We prayed hard that we would know this little life a few months later. (You can hear Ellen’s version of the story here.

Well, there were no hard and fast answers from the specialist appointments. All we knew for sure was that the baby was missing some of the bone structure in his arms and there was an issue with his heart.

Fast forward a few months later. My sister was in the hospital because she was very, very sick. She was a patient in the hospital where she worked! The doctors were baffled at what the cause of the illness was and decided to deliver the baby by c-section. We all held our breaths as a little baby boy was born on November 12. He was tiny but was doing ok. My sister’s co-workers cared for him in the NICU until he came home.

Then, the unthinkable happened. He stopped breathing at home. My sister had to perform CPR until the ambulance arrived and rushed them to the hospital. And that was on Christmas. Read about the harrowing story here. You’ll want to read this. And then sign up for a CPR class.

Judah was officially diagnosed with Holt-Oram Syndrome. He had a heart issue repaired when he was a few months old. And he does everything he wants to do! He has short arms – or lucky fins if you ask Nemo!

Anyway, today he is a happy and fun five year old boy now and he is the cutest thing! He just reached a major milestone that all moms look toward with fear – the first day of kindergarten. Judah’s parents thought about his first day of kindergarten the day he was born.

Questions have been swirling for the past 5 years: Will he need help doing stuff at school? What will the kids say? How will the teacher react? What if one of the other kids is mean to him?

The time came this week for my sister to send her little boy out into the real world for the first time. She was nervous but hopeful. When she met his teacher at open house, she explained that she had a student with a limb difference very early in her teaching career and was so excited to have Judah in her class.

Here’s what happened on the first day of school, in my sister’s words:

So many fears letting my baby big boy out into the real world today. When he got home and we were talking all about kindergarten, he told me he’d made friends with a boy we met at orientation. Y’all this kids is HUGE. Like twice Judah’s size. I asked him if anyone asked him about his arms. He said a few, but no one was mean and seemed ok with his “That’s the way God made me” response we’d been coaching him through for years now. I asked if his new friend was one of the ones who asked about his arms. He said, “No, he already knew all about them. “His daddy told him all about my arms, and told him that if anyone was being mean to me about them to tell them to stop and then tell the teacher.”

I’m so very grateful for this dad today, and for every parent who TEACHES their children about differences instead of shushing them and rushing away from any “different” person their child is curious about.

What an answer to many years of prayer for this Momma and Daddy.

 

Parents, talk to your kids about differences! Teach them to be kind, to be comfortable with things being a little different. Teach them to stand up for someone that is being picked on or made fun of. Allow them to ask questions about wheelchairs, leg braces, short arms, communication differences. Children have simple questions that need simple answers.

This dad’s short conversation with his son about Judah is truly the answer to prayers. Just imagine the impact each kid can have when they are taught about kindness and differences from the beginning. What a beautiful picture of friendship.

So, let’s take a lesson from this kid’s dad – whoever he is!