ugliness.........

I had another post planned....... but then I read this post written by a hurt, angry mama bear.  A search engine searching for words "ugly", "r&tarded", "baby girl", "toddler"......  Imagine their surprise when what came up was a picture of absolute PURE BEAUTY.   A picture of the face of God, in his image.  

While I know we live in a broken world, it still makes my heart hurt to know this ugliness exists and is directed at our children.  It makes me angry,... it makes me sad, ....it makes me want to work harder to change the world and at the same time it disheartens me.

 The internet has been a wonderful place to connect and become part of the "larger"  down syndrome family, but it has also proven to be another vehicle to spread ugliness.   This type of hate, this type of ignorance is why I do frequent searches using Nevin's name, or other combinations of descriptors such as ds adult, ds teen, r&tard, etc. .......to try and protect him as best I can.   I have had several instances of his picture being used inappropriately, but at least by people willing to take it down (for e.g. his picture in an article that promoted prenatal testing to avoid ds.)  I haven't been sucker punched by "hate driven" searches yet.  But I've also avoided using the words down syndrome and his name together very often...... is that me just being chicken?......  am I failing at advocating?  ...... I know that I may not be connecting with as many people as I could because I've been "timid".    Not like I'm a powerful blogger or anything..... but it does make me think?

If you get a chance go over to this mama bear's blog and let her know what a beautiful daughter she has (even though she knows that..... a little extra lovin' can't hurt!!)  tell I sent you.   ummm..... tell her Nevin sent you  :)

a walk........

I've been quiet lately.   I just haven't had words that were organized enough in my brain to write them down.   There has been much happening........  much to think about ........ much to pray about.

In the meantime, the weather has been wonderful.  My foot is finally better enough that we can get out for a walk.   But Nevin and Rosie were more interested in a "run"  :)

It was a little reminiscent of the "runner" days.  :)  But they stopped and waited when we called and told them to wait for us.   THAT was different than the "runner" days. 

 When Nevin was little and would "go missing", the joke was that we would first check the  perimeter to see if we could see his dust, before we wasted time checking the house and yard, etc.  The above picture made me think of that.

Nevin loves Rosie.   It bothers him when she gets "tangled" in the leash..... I tried to tell him that she doesn't mind...... but he continued to insist on "helping her".  

Nevin was just a "little" perturbed with our slow pace.   

He was glad when we got to the water so that Rosie could swim! 

 He really got a kick out of watching her jump in the water and paddle away.

And Nevin was proud of HIS photography skills, too.
 I'm thinking we need to get him a camera.  :)

It was a good day!