A simple, kind thing

“Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.” Mother Teresa

It sounds like a little thing. Not many people would understand why this little thing was such a big thing to me.

I have a lot of faith that things will be okay, that Mia will be okay, that our family will be okay, that I will be okay. But I’m fearful. Who wouldn’t be? I’m fearful of the future. Of the next year, the next five, the next 20. I love my friends, I do. You are all awesome, amazing people. But like anything in our lives, you don’t “really know” until you’ve lived it. You’ve all been amazing. You’ve all said all the right words and done all the right things, but fear is a pervasive thing.

All the experts – our pediatrician, the therapists, the nurses – have said the same thing. “You should talk to someone who has a child with Down syndrome.” In fact my pediatrician AND my son’s therapist have already called parents they know and said I could call them, but I’m a coward. What would I say? “Hi, I have a kid with Down syndrome and so do you, we should talk.” I don’t know how to say that because I’m an introverted chicken.

The fact is that I know a mom who has a child with Down syndrome. I’ve talked to her about her son. I’ve met her son. I have her cell phone number in my phone, and I was too afraid to call her. I wasn’t sure what to say.

So when she called me, I cried. When I heard her message on my phone I burst into tears. I really needed to talk to her and didn’t realize how much until I called her back and couldn’t stop talking and listening and hearing her understand me. It was such a little thing. Just a phone call.

Thank you, friend, for picking up the phone when I couldn’t.

It was a simple, kind thing, but it meant a lot to me.

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