Playdate

Today Carrington and her big brother Ethan had a special day with me in that we all went to our friends' house for a playdate. Carrington played with her very special friend whom I cannot help but call little Miss Sunshine as she is always smiling. Carrington was just sitting in the exersaucer when Little Miss Sunshine was standing up and the conversation began. The two of them were just looking at each other and babbling up a storm. At one point they both were sort of swatting at a toy together. This just made my heart smile as I could envision these two little precious gifts just growing up and being friends, having more play dates, going to the NDSC and hanging out. Yes, the immediate dreams that went through my mind really made my eyes mist up a bit.

Now Ethan thought he hit the jackpot when he walked into our friend's house and saw she had two boys for him to play with. Ethan has really been struggling with the triplets (yet not Carrington as he just loves her) so this was a great time for him to do boy stuff. Each of the boys were playing superhero and Star Wars so life was good for them. And then to bring in the cool Mommy points we had a coupon and gift card to Papa Murphy's pizza so we picked one up and brought that over for lunch. I don't know if you have ever seen 3 young boys when it comes to pizza but let's just say their eyes were open wide:) The really neat part about today is that not only did Carrington and Mommy get to hang out with our friends but Ethan made two new friends today as well. While I was able to visit Ethan just played his heart out and Carrington just swapped raspberries with her new friend. To watch these young boys whom all have siblings with Down syndrome just carry about their play and talk about their sisters truly was special because you know these boys are going to protect their sisters and be the best big brothers to the girls. Change comes from within a family and in both of our families the change began when God put in our hearts the passion for adoption. My goal as a parent is not to train my son to grow up and adopt a child with special needs but rather to teach him the value of all God creates and to be there for his siblings. I realize Ethan is only 4 and there are days he wants me to take the triplets back to the airport (he really did say that one day) but in our opinion it is very important for him to realize that God created us all different and that having siblings with special needs is not a burden but rather a blessing.

This picture is blurry because the girls were both blowing raspberries to each other and moving all around.
Little Miss Sunshine just looked at me as if I was interrupting her and the Princess' most important conversation. Just look at how Carrington is focused on her new friend.
A most important discussion is going down here:)
While the girls were in the other room chatting away the boys were in the playroom fighting the bad guys of Star Wars. Look how happy 3 boys can be with bellies full of pizza and lemonade.