Devotions to Dalton: Parenting 101

I had the opportunity to write for a very cool project this week. The3six5 is a worldwide project that seeks out authors from all over the place with different voices to share their experiences that day. I applied and was accepted to write for this year, some time ago. I had planned on writing some thought provoking educationally driven post, but once I sat down I knew what I truly wanted to share with the world.

Once finished, I read the post to my friend Marsha and she asked me if I was sure I wanted to share Dalton's journey with a vast audience. I explained that if Dalton's story could help to inspire but one person to parent their child in a different light, then it would be worth the pain of opening up our hearts for the world to see.

Hope you enjoy! I am attaching the link to the site as well.

Walking back into school after a holiday break is always an exciting time for both me as the teacher and for the students who surround me.

Today was no different.

As I waddled into the library I was greeted by lots of hugs and rubs on my pregnant belly. All of the sudden one particularly curious child looked up at me and said: “Is Dalton going to come to school here when he is older?”

I didn’t want to tell her I didn’t know if my son would even see his first birthday, let alone a kindergarten classroom.

I have wanted to be the most prepared Mother possible for as long as I can remember. Unfortunately, I now know that there are no parenting books on how to prepare and deal with a potentially fatal chromosomal disorder.

My son has been diagnosed with severe partial Trisomy 13. His life expectancy and quality of life is unknown. The Doctors can give us no answers except to just “Wait.”

Before we learned of Dalton’s diagnosis, parenting was all about the decorating of the nursery, the stylish clothes, and the most popular stroller brands. It was all about the stuff and not enough about the life. The life we unfortunately learned we could lose so quickly.

What this little boy has taught us already has amazed me.

What he has taught everyone else has astounded me.

He has taught people to count their blessings and not to dwell on the things that don’t happen to work out the way you expect them to. We never expected to have to be these parents to Dalton but we are taking each moment that we will be blessed with his presence, and treasuring it.

We may not be able to plan ahead like most parents to what school he will attend, what his first Halloween costume will be, or what his newborn photo session will consist of. One thing we will be able to plan for is the amount of love we will give him will be never ending.

Remembering all of this, I simply looked down at my eager student and told her

“We hope so.”