Today we went to hang out with my cousin and her little boy on her birthday. We were excited, Lauren is always excited to hang out with others, especially those she remembers 🙂 We went to pizza hut, and she loved Caleb, especially his luscious hair haha (poor Caleb)!

The thing with being out and about with Lauren, as you may know if you know her, is she attracts all kinds of people and their smiles and hello’s and waves, and she is purposely looking for others to smile at and have them smile! It really is a completely different outlook on life to mine hahahaha! Where did she come from?????? Heaven, that’s where!!

So after food, we wanted to go to a park and there’s a great one with sand near where we were. So off we go. She loves watching Caleb running, and is extremely excited by the park, but ESPECIALLY by the sand. So we sat on the edge, and she starts playing in the sand and is in her element. Caleb brought her a spade (he’s very cute) and she was digging away.

As always, I notice my surroundings a lot. I pick up on who’s around, the conversations sometimes, making sure I’m not vulnerable in any way ( I like to think I should work for mI5 😉 ), and I always like to notice if possible if people are looking at Lauren (I watch TOO many cop shows!).

Today there were a couple of children, one who asked us ‘who’s she?’ haha as if he’d know when we said her name bless him. We responded anyway. Then I noticed a couple of ladies at different times looking over and smiling, couldn’t tell if they were together or not to begin with.

Then at one point another lady was walking over and at first she was looking so intensely at Lauren that I thought maybe the spade belonged to her kid or something, and she said something to Cassy, who was in the middle of the whole ‘mummy I need a wee’, so then she repeated it to me:  ‘Can I just see her for a minute?’. Unsure whether or not this lady had additional needs I immediately thought of my older sister who does and thought I’d want people to be kind to her, so I responded ‘yeah, sure’. She knelt down in front of Lauren, and asked ‘what’s your name?’. I responded for Lauren ‘She doesn’t talk very much but her name’s Lauren’. She then said, ‘I saw her get really excited when you came in’. So we exchanged a few words about parks and sand and Lauren’s love for it all. Lauren waved to say hello. Then Susanne (the lady), said to Lauren ‘It’s hard living with a disability isn’t it’. She then said it to me, and I couldn’t say anything to start with, I had to think. Yes, it absolutely is, but then this bundle of joy in front of me, for those moments I was living there and then, it wasn’t too hard. She was enjoying herself, we were at a place she loves, life was good (belly full of pizza!!!) and for a moment I realised for us that yes it is hard, but we get a glimmer of sunshine like now and I feel at peace. I gain so much from Lauren. I get to have fun. She’s so easily pleased. I’m grateful for moments that make us forget how hard it can be. I did respond ‘yes, it is’ to Susanne though, because the reality is of course most definitely hard for most with disabilities.

I’m also grateful for sweet people like Suzanne. She had returned to her group, who were some of the ladies I’d seen earlier looking on and smiling, and as we were getting ready to leave, she shouted as she was walking over ‘Lauren-are you going?’. I told her it was time for us to go, and before I know it Lauren’s arms are widespread ‘Do you want a hug’ says Susanne, and they’re embracing. Lauren got to spread a little more love and joy, but equally so did this new friend of Lauren’s, Susanne.

I can’t take her anywhere anonymously can I haha!! I’m learning to love these moments, and enjoy learning along our way.

A xxx