I remember getting to the airport in Cyprus on our way home, Jonathan had to go get the rest of the luggage from the car and I was left with Lauren waiting, we saw some seats in between a couple of fellow travellers so we sat down. There was an older man, mid 40’s I would guess on one side. On the other side of us a younger man, early 20’s I would guess. I would take an uneducated guess that they were both Middle Eastern. It became clear quickly that their English wasn’t great. Lauren immediately, as she does, got their attention and waved and smiled. Both said Hello. I didn’t think they would give her any attention, Why? Well if I’m honest they were both single (as in no companions with them here), they were both guys, I thought they wouldn’t want to give any attention to the little white girl in front of them. More so the little disabled white girl. I thought race would come into it and they’d ignore her. I judged them, a quick judgement that we all probably throw out there numerous times a day. I completely got them wrong and learned a lesson very quickly from my then 5 year old daughter!!

In her hands she had a slinky that we had bought her that day, she loves them. She also loves holding one end and someone holding the other and making it bounce up and down.

She quickly offered the younger guy the slinky, he didn’t really know how to respond straight away, said hi again, and smiled. He was trying bless him. So I took one end and kind of played with her with it to show him what she liked to do, so that if he did want to, even though she couldn’t talk, he understood what she wanted from him.

She then offers it to the older guy, who takes one end and plays with it with her. She was so excited. She took it back, she then offers it to the younger guy. Who went to take one end, I think she teased him and I can’t remember if he got to play with it with her or not. She played it again and again with the older guy. Until we had to go and she waves bye with a big cheesy grin on her face and they both respond saying bye.

She has no boundaries, no prejudices, no judgement within her. She is pure, and I’m glad I learned quickly here, and let her capture the attention of our fellow travellers, because if I’d stopped her in case she annoyed them, or I thought they wouldn’t respond so didn’t let her try, they wouldn’t have gotten to interact and on this occasion both parties involved smile, laugh and play with the slinky!

Who knew my little Lauren could teach me so much. Humanity connects people. The very essence of being human and wanting contact with other humans. And these older men were no different when my disabled daughter wanted to connect with them. Not every situation ends like this and some people shock me the other way round and ignore her. Just because another mother is around with their child-doesn’t mean they want to smile back at my beautiful Lauren. (Few and far between those kind of interactions thankfully!!)

However, I learned my lesson here in the Cyprus Airport. Do not judge. Let a person act first and teach you who they are. Do not Judge 😀

 Who can’t love that massive smile?!?!!!!!! 😀 xxx