How can this be?

How can it this be? How can it be that I have become so emotionally tied to people. Many people are the ones that I have been blessed to see everyday, my little family, my sister Anna and Rudy, their smart, beautiful daughters, my cousins and their precious children. My Crypts my rocks here at work, we have been through many rough times and many awesome and inspiring times together, we love each other, no doubt about it.

BUT others are people that I have not even met in person.

These people are people I have "met" through the disability called Williams Syndrome. I worry for them, I cheer for them, I embrace their quirky stories and their deepest sorrows, their rejoying in a milestone or accompishment, my stomach gets tied in knots when they post school and bus situations, looming operations and the oh so terror inducing PLAY DATES:) (oh of all things). I pray so hard for them that many times it brings me to tears. Me, many years ago the young person that more then one time stated "I won't have children". Silly naive me.

Here I am vunerable and humbled by love. It is overwhelming sometimes. The fear I feel for them, as one mom put it the always looking over the shoulder and waiting for the other shoe to drop, not just for myself for for them. Disability, retarded, over stimulated, anethesia, failure to thrive, cardio, renal, thyroid, elastin, short bus, IEP, ARD, calcium and creatine. WORDS they are all words, but for many of us they are dreaded and make our throats sieze up. Preexisting condition, CoPay, Insurance, denial, appeal , Cobra, equally sweat producing.

These people and Williams Syndrome make me what I am now. I am appreciative for every single minute of every single day. I love unconditionally. I here, and not in the past.

How is that? Here is just one example of how. I gave my heart to a boy whose name is Jake. His mom and dad reached out, I was there. I grabbed for them and grabbed all of what they had and what will be. Yesterday October 7 he was wheeled into surgery, we were walking into our own Cardiac appointment in a whole different State. My family was walking the same walk all my WS friends have walked before, praying for a good trip, prep, echo and a sit down with the cardiologist, all for a little person not even 3 ft tall yet. During our visit we wore our Bless Jake's Heart t-shirts. Many people noticed, and liked them, some knew the verse, but more importantly some asked Who is Jake? 5 people we told of Jake and what he was going through, even my husband had his "card" in his wallet and shared with them. From this we have educated 5 more people about WS and gain one new Mom and family into our hearts. How is this? Jake and Lila brought a little girl no more then 2 years old into the Texas WS family. I met with the mom after her hours long cardio appt and exchanged email addresses. How is it that me, a previously self absorbed chick could reach out to a complete stranger in the middle of a large hospital waiting room? How is this? Maybe I need to stop asking cause it is happening.............

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