Monday, June 6, 2016
The First Time It Happened...
Yesterday, we dedicated our sweet baby Colton at church. We got him all dressed up and arrived early in order to save our seats near the front. While we waited for church to start, we listened to the worship team practice. My in-laws arrived and were playing with the kids because they hadn't seen them in a few days. There was a lady and her daughter sitting behind us, but I didn't know them. They must have been watching Colton for a little while. The mom came over and said hello to Colton and commented on how cute he was. Then she went back to her seat. Church began and after the first song, the Pastor said a few words and then asked everyone to turn around and greet the people sitting near you. Hunter and I turned around and spoke to this lady and her daughter. She was super friendly and said hi to Weston and asked him if he was a good big brother. Then she talked to Colton and told us that she had some friends who had an 8 year old with Downs and he was quite a character. She said they really enjoyed being around him. Hunter and I turned back around as the music began and starting singing. All of a sudden, my eyes filled with tears. I kept trying to make them stop, but I just couldn't. It was the very first time anybody had noticed and mentioned that Colton had DS without me telling them...and man, it stung. I'm sure people may have noticed before, but this was the first time somebody actually said something about it. Hunter also must have been thinking about it because he leaned over to me and said, "Did you tell her he had Downs or did she just know?" I said, "She just knew."
I knew this day would come...I've tried to prepare myself for it...but it still hurt. After a few songs, I pushed through the tears and it was time to dedicate Colton. We went up on stage and were the first family to go.
The Pastor read 9 statements that we commit to as parents of these sweet babies. He inserted Colton's name into every one of them. The first two were just what I needed to hear...
1. We acknowledge that Colton is a gift from God.
2. We recognize that God uniquely formed Colton and our responsibility is to raise him to honor God in all of life.
The verse we chose for Colton came from Psalm 139:14,
"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well."
We absolutely adore our little chunky monkey. He brings us such joy. It takes about 2 seconds of talking to him to get him to smile at you like the picture below. We wouldn't trade him for the world. We know that he was "wonderfully made." We also know he does have DS and that people are going to know it, too. It will be written all over his face. Pretty soon, we'll get used to people looking at him and commenting on it....but this was a first for us...and it was hard. But I will say, our Colton man is pretty dang cute...and that smile can brighten anybody's day.
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