Limitless

One of the professionals who came in our first week at home joked, "for most people they have that moment their child leaves home, but of course you won't have that". Kevin replied, "I don't know about that". Later, recounting this comment to her godmother Kevin said, "I won't have limitations put on her," and her godmother, quite the wit, replied, "does that include the amount of ice cream that we eat?" 

I should add that we like this lady and she's excellent at her job. And the key is for us to meet any and all comment with equanimity, love and acceptance as it's all part of our journey. 

A friend had messaged me coincidentally around that time to say, "when I moved into a house I shared with four others, one of my housemates had Down's syndrome. It was really great to have him as a housemate. Back when he was born, his parents were told he'd never be able to do anything independently, but they started to teach him whatever they felt he could learn. He was a full member of our shared house, although his brother helped him with "official" things. For me and certainly for everyone who experienced sharing a house with him, this was a great time. We are currently on holiday with our baby, sleeping in our tent with him. People were telling us that camping with a baby was crazy, but that's how we love our holidays and we didn't see why we shouldn't do it with him. And it's awesome. So - you'll soon know Coraline well enough to tell what's possible with and for her, whatever others are saying, and this is a wonderful feeling - it gives me a lot of confidence." The more we think about Coraline being all she can be, the more it is about Coraline and us, and about us responding to Coraline as an individual.