Happy Birthday Lucah…even though I know days like today aren’t always easy for you.
To be honest, days like today aren’t easy for me either. I never know what I will get when you wake up, and especially on days like today I pray for smiles and not tears when I walk into your room in the morning.
Birthdays are days full of expectations for everyone and usually full of frustration for you, if not every detail goes as planned. Details and plans that you may have forgotten to tell us about or created to be much bigger in your head than your Dad and I had understood. I understand it can all be too much sometimes.
I know that not everyone understands why you get so mad and sad often over seemingly small things, and most of the time you don’t either. But I need you to know, I still love you just the way you are.
Today you woke up to a room full of balloons like I always do – but according to you, I didn’t put enough balloons in your bed. This sent you into a fit. Many parents would take this personally and call you ungrateful and scold you, but I know now after years of watching you evolve that it’s not about me. I am grateful to be able to comfort you back into presence with me, even if it takes every ounce of patience that I have. And, I still love you just the way you are.
We’ve always known you we a little different, even if those differences don’t always make it easy to parent you or understand you, I want you to know on your 8th birthday that I wouldn’t want you any other way, and that I still love you just the way you are.
I’m told you don’t learn like other kids, don’t react like other kids, don’t behave like other kids. That other kids notice this and bully you for your differences. I’m told to medicate you, to push you harder, to support you more. Even though this is heavy for me to hold sometimes, I still love you just the way you are.
I see you my beautiful boy. I see how brilliant you are. How courageous you are. I see the size of your enormous heart. I see how passionate you are about the things that you love, and am constantly impressed by how many little details you already know about science, reptiles and animals! You have so many strengths and I see that you just learn a little differently, need to express your emotions a little more and need to be reminded that you are safe and loved often.
I have no doubt that you will change the world someday with your wild imagination, drive and love for nature. So please, no matter what they say, don’t change who you are. Embrace all your imperfections and abnormalities (trust me we ALL have them), because it’s what makes YOU you, and I LOVE YOU just the way you are.
– ????Your Mum who loves you more than you will ever know!
