Humility and Life Lessons

Our entire family spent last weekend at the Nebraska Center for the Education of Children Who are Blind and Visually Impaired's family weekend. It is a yearly gig that we partake in, well worth the time in gold. As always, we get to meet up with the families that have grown near and dear to us. As always, we get to see Sally Gittiinger, the superintendent of NCECBVI, who never fails to inspire and amaze us with her love for her career. As always, we come home with more than one revelation and life lesson to tuck in our heads and our hearts. The picture here is of Bill at Orientation and Mobility Training. (With the Kleenex under his shades, kind of looks like a Freddy Krueger wanna be, don't you think?)

This year, the lesson came on Friday night via a game of Beep Ball. Parents vs. kids.

Beep ball is a game for the blind that is like a baseball of sorts. The softball beeps, for reasons which I hope are obvious. Really good players utilize a pitcher, just like baseball. We remedial players, of course, utilized a tee. There are two foam pylons placed respectively where the first and third bases for standard baseball are placed. They are both connected to a remote, held by a neutral player who stands behind the batter. When the batter hits the ball, the remote-holder randomly chooses to activate either the base at third or at first, at which point it makes a noise that is slightly different than the noise that the ball is making. The object is for the batter to reach the base before the outfielders retrieve the beeping ball. If he/she does, their team scores a point; if not, they are out. Three outs, end of inning.

Simple enough, I thought. However, to make all things equal, we parents wore blindfolds.

The kids smoked us. Flattened us. Beat us to a pulp. I don't think they really even had to try.

And within about 30 seconds of donning the blindfold, I realized that our children are darn amazing to adapt to the sighted world that we live in....and it doesn't even seem to phase them....as evidenced by the score. I realized very quickly that as sighted individuals, we are extremely quick to judge those who are blind or visually impaired. Somehow, we see people who don't see very well as less capable. We count them out. We assume they can't do things just because they cannot see like we do. We fail to realize that they are remarkable for living in a world that is made for people who do see well. It only took 30 seconds of me wearing a blindfold to realize this, because in less time than that, I was completely disoriented. I had difficulty finding the darn beeping ball, not to mention the giant beeping bases that are impossible to miss visually. I was stumbling around dragging my feet because I had no idea where I was or where I was going. And....being totally out of our element, all of the parents on our team cheated in between each batter, peeking out from under our blindfolds to figure out where we were....and it was usually about 50 feet away from where we thought we were and facing the opposite direction. Talk about humbling.

I will now take the opportunity to point out that you will never find a person who is blind and has lived and honed his or her skills even close to as disoriented and unsure of themselves as we were in those moments.

I challenge you, dare you, to put on a blindfold and walk around without peeking for 30 minutes. In the comfort of your home is one thing. I bet you can't do it in a place you've never been before.

But if you do, it will change the way you look at things.

Seeing Things Differently

There's a certain something special about looking a person in the eye and knowing that you are looking at the way they see the world. It is a beautiful thing....and an especially special thing if you are looking at the eyes of a child as they are soaking up everything that surrounds them and forming their own ideas about the workings of the universe.

This feeling has certainly been a parenthood perk. Even in raising a child with very low vision, we have cherished the way that Camille sees the world through her eyes in her very own way. However, it dawned on me this morning as I watched her fingers work their way across the beautiful simplicity of embossed braille, that I love her long, dainty fingers in that special way that I love looking at the eyes of others. Her beautiful hands provide her insight into the world in ways that ours never will.

Camille and I just got back from an incredible trip to Detroit to see her retinal specialist. As fringe benefits, we got to meet up with two families whom we've come to love long distance. (Love you, Yael, Sammy, and Noah!!) Camille got to shop at Seedlings where braille books are produced for children. We got to meet with our dear friend, Paula, at ROPARD and explore IKEA for as long as our hearts desired.

I don't know what it was, but this connection with Braille-reading friends, people who cheer for Braille readers, others who use canes, and a book of riddles written in braille, have all-of- the- sudden lighted a fire for Braille in her formerly print-lovin,braille-lesslovin-but-will-do-it-if-I-have-to heart.

As we sat in the airport for our flight back to Omaha, Camille's fingers dancing over the Braille riddles and giggles emerging from that smiling face, I acutely noticed a twenty-youngish guy with rods in his ears and an iTouch staring with this incredible smile on his face as he watched her read. He asked, "How old is she?"

I reply, "Five."

"That," he said, "is just really amazing. When I was young, I had a friend who was blind. He tried to teach me to even read Braille by sight but I could just never seem to get it." We went on to have a very heartfelt discussion.

Thank you, young cool dude, for taking the time to appreciate my girl. Thank you for noticing that not only is this amazing girl an amazing reader for her age, but she is amazing in print AND braille. Thank you for letting her happiness infect you. Thank you for believing in her instantly, instead of making her prove herself to you. Oh that the world were always this way.

Needless to say, as she was reading "Riddles and More Riddles" this morning, these happy thoughts filled my head and I saw the world through her beautiful fingers.

In an Instant....

This is what happens in an instant.

Little Jack goes from None to One.

Because it was just an instant, right?

That is what it seems like, anyway.

We spent the weekend in Kearney
celebrating a year well spent with this wonderful little man. What's not to love? He is so laid back it is...mostly...peaceful just hanging with him. He's at that age when everything---all foods, all people, all toys---are wonderful. He responds to the word "no" and still loves you for it as life in general is one big game. He's a neutral kind of guy. (See picture at left: he wears Yankee and Cubs attire at the same time and carries it off quite well). And, my favorite part of all....you can't resist those huge baby blues. I love you, Little Man. You make the world a better place.

And many thanks to all of the family that gathered around to help celebrate your life.