A Special Friend and Teacher

Today's post was written by a very close friend of our family. Angie Barbre also happens to be special educator. We have A LOT of teachers in our family, but I never noticed how many special educators we had until Logan was born. The best part about having Special Education teachers in your family is the wonderful, inspiring stories they have to share.
Thanks Angie!!

By Angie Barbre

I am so happy to write a blog for Katie, Logan and DS. My journey with DS began many years ago when I was still a teenager. My aunt had a sister with DS. She had asked me to take care of Peggy while she ran some errands. As a teenager in the 80's DS was not something I had any experience with. I wasn't sure exactly what I was getting myself into I only knew Peggy from the occasional dinner at my aunt and uncle when she was staying with them. See Peggy was the sister of my aunt who's parents had long since past away. Instead of the other sisters sending her to a home Peggy would spend a couple of months with each one. She was older when I started staying with her. I think by then she was in her forties. She was already starting to decline but at times still had a sharp memory, not unlike the rest of us as we age. At dinner we would all laugh at the things should would recall from years past just out of the blue. Eventually the sisters had a hard decision with what to do with Peggy. She was getting older and required more care and they were also getting older. Finally they decided to put her in a home for people with DS. I know that it was a hard and long fought decision for them all but it was best for all. Peggy lived well into her 50's which at that time was a long time. I thought my journey with DS had ended there but I was wrong.
I got married and had children. When they got older I started working in the public school system and my journey began again. I wound up in a preschool special ed class with Karanja. Karanja was a very special boy. He had DS. He was the only child of a single mother. He was all smiles and hugs all the time. He was on his own special diet of potatoes. If it was made of potatoes he would eat it. I still see him sometimes when I go to the grocery store. He still smiles and talks to me. He speech is much better now. He is about 14 years old. Time does fly by.
There have been a few other very special DS kids in my life since then.. The next was Courtney. Tears came to my eyes when she left my classroom to go back to her home school. Then there was Sydney. If any child with DS has touched my heart she did the most. She will always be my special girl. Beautiful, stubborn, sweet and loving are all the best words to describe her.. We had many battles thru therapies but she still won my heart so much so her mother asked me several times if I would watch her while she was at work in the summer months. Unfortunately schedules never worked but I always have the special poem with her picture that she gave me as a gift.
My next encounter was with a 16 year old boy at a private special needs school that I worked at next. He was a residential student that I met while taking my students to their dorms. He always wore a police badge around his neck. Seeing that badge around his neck every night I thought I would bring him something that had to do with law enforcement. I gave him a teddy bear and a handful of stickers. He loved them all. When I came back to school after a long weekend he had left a note in the bin outside my classroom. It said that he loved me. What a great feeling to give someone such a simple thing and to have such a great impact. I wish all of us could experience such a great impact from such a small gesture! I left the school shortly after and never saw him again.
My next experience with DS is when I found out about Logan. I new what a special gift Katie, Sam and the entire family had coming to them. I thought if Logan was anything like what I have experienced they are blessed beyond belief! And now I definately know they are.What a beautiful special boy they have! Can he be any cutier with those glasses!!