Special needs | Lessons from my daughter

I love this time of year.

Fall is beautiful, the leaves are turning all kinds of pretty red and yellow shades.

The weather is cool, sometime border line cold.

It’s perfect weather to be cooking up a feast.

It’s the perfect time to go apple picking.

My friend Lise is a photographer. She takes amazing pictures of things and places…. I am sure there is a word for that type of picture, I just don’t know. what it is. (Remember, my mother tongue is French, there are English words I still don’t know) Currently, she’s working on adding people to her repertoire so I offered up Emily as a subject :).

We were meeting at the Belliveau Orchard right after lunch today. It was my first visit there and Emily had been once before with school.

http://www.vergerbelliveauorchard.ca

We got there at 12:30

The apple picking season is short so this was a busy place today with a 22 Celsius weather.

It took us a good half hour to make it through the gate. We stood in line and watch the kids play on the hay bales.

Emily didn’t ask to go play with them. Too many kids and a whole lot of opportunities to get hurt. It’s amazing how I now see this… I guess that’s a perk of being a parent of a child with mobility challenges.

They have a corn maze there too but that didn’t attract us so off we went to pick some apple.

Emily was listening to Lise quite well.

This was our way in the orchard.

My beautiful daughter played the role of model really well for Lise.

I got to take some pictures too.

We even managed to convince Emily to lay down in the orchard. Now considering her lack of desire to even walk bare feet on grass… to have her accept to do this was quite an accomplishment.

After all that hard work, it was time to test the quality of our apples.

20lbs of yummy Cortland apples for me to make apple sauce and apple crumble.

My house will smell delicious shortly!

I love autumn! It’s my favorite season!

What’s your favorite season?

I have another application form to fill for Emily.

It’s for the Sunshine Foundation. They grant dreams for Canadian kids.

http://www.sunshine.ca

To qualify, a child must be:
1. between the age of 3 and 18.
2. Challenged by a severe physical disability or life-threatening illness.
3. Resident of Canada
4. Cognitively and physically capable of expressing his or her own dream.

I contacted them at least a year ago to see if Emily qualified.

Emily expressed her dream which involves Justin Bieber but doesn’t involve one of his jam packed and extremely loud concert.

We passed the first step quickly enough. Now I need to fill the detailed form and get Emily’s doctor to sign-off on it.

I admit, I’ve been delaying this process for 3 reasons.

1. What if she doesn’t get it? She understands enough to know what we are doing. The foundation wanted her to express her dream. She did that so now she wants it.

2. What if she qualifies and Justin Bieber or whomever makes decision for him says no to her dream? She’s really specific and I know that he works with Make a Wish, not sure if the Sunshine foundation has any pull there…

3. I have to list Emily’s physical disabilities… This sucks so much. I do understand why but it takes all the happy/positive out of this adventure.

If I want her to qualify, I need to show that she is severely physically disabled.

I prefer to look at what she can do!

I NEED to look at what she can do!

The form is asking about her physical movement level of independence and need for assistance:
1. Use of hands/arms
2. Use of legs
3. Sight
3. Hearing

Interaction with others
1. Other children
2. Siblings
3. Adults

Emotional response to
1. Unfamiliar situations
2. Stimulating situations

For each of those questions, I answered partial or limited and attached a list of information.

My attachment is four pages long and make me want to cry.

I have been taking mental notes for months about her struggles and challenges in order to make her application as complete as possible.

I hate, yes hate, that I have to do this to help her maybe realize her dream. I hope and pray to whomever is listening that Emily never see this detailed application.

I would hate for her to see a list of “can’t” when we have been telling her for 15 years to focus on “can”.

I truly dislike forms and assessment. Even the positive ones turn-out to be hurtful.

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