To Table of Contents that we were ever having this discussion, though it had felt like Nathan’ s disability was all we talked about over the years. I was moved by the depth of the feelings of each member of my family following the diagnosis and beyond. At the time of Nathan’ s birth, his siblings were very young – 8, 6 and 4. Yet the impact was profound, and what was worst, I was so wrapped up in my own grief that I didn’ t realize how much they were hurting.
I am grateful that before Nathan was born, we were already a close-knitted family. Somehow >,
> we were able to transcend the
> challenges and grow even more close, so that Nathan has an impenetrable wall of support surrounding him. Today, his siblings are 24, 22 and 20, and I have to jokingly remind them that Nathan has only one mom, because they all act like they are his parents( it brings a smile to my face every time I think about this).
Nathan is a much like a typical child in many ways. He is brilliant, vivacious, and social young man. Though he has gone through more health issues than most and lives with a very debilitating disability( cerebral palsy), he is joyful and wears a“ million Dollar Smile!”. He is extremely passionate about life, love to go on trips( we were once lost for 14 hours in Florida and while the rest of us panicked, it was merely an adventure for him). He likes school of the social activities, hate schoolwork and his favorite pastime is watch TV. We have always tried to give him as many opportunities as his siblings, so he has his own special brand of swimming( one leg beating the water at a time), athletics-he participated in the wheelchair at his old school in Jamaica( was the only person who went backwards in his chair) and tries his had at floor ball( football for children with disabilities). He was in the dance club at his old school in Jamaica and dabbled