He Said What?

Usually I am scrambling to write down things my younger children say, knowing I'd forget it if I don't!  Kids say the darndest things sometimes, don't they?  I like to write them down (if I can) since it's great to look back and remember those precious moments in time.  Blogging has been a good place to keep such memories on record, and a public record at that!  In my case, it's the only record I have so I suppose a public record is better than no record at all.

This time I'm writing about something my oldest child said.  I can still say "child" for about 2 more months and then he will be my "adult" child. (sniff, sniff)  He has recently taken a side job of babysitting twin boys to help out the Mom caring for an infant.  One of her twins has Downs Syndrome.  Other than some dear friends who have a severely brain damaged child, my son has had no exposure to special needs children.  I was asking him how things were going with the babysitting and he started telling me how much he loved this particular child with Downs Syndrome.  I made a comment about how sad and heart breaking it is that people abort babies when they discover that they have conditions like Downs Syndrome.  He just gasped and got the saddest look on his budding adult face, exclaiming: "Awwww, I WANT a Downs Syndrome baby..."

He said what? I nearly broke down in tears right there on the spot...Joyful tears of course!  How was it that my teenaged son stated something so pure and beautiful? Our culture tells us that teenagers are our worst nightmare.  Did the culture just hear what this teenager just said?  He said something that I've never heard any adult say in my entire life...He wants a Downs Syndrome Baby.  They were words of love, not fear.  They were words of life, not death.  They were words that I never dreamed of in my own teenaged years.  They weren't just words, they were truth.  They weren't just words, they were glimmers of hope in this culture of death.  He just defied all odds...He said what?

"In order to give love to anyone, we need to enter into contact with that person. If we are only interested in large numbers, we will get lost in numbers and never be able to encounter a single person with love and attention.  I believe in the things that happen person to person.  For me, each person is Christ and since there is only one Lord, the person that I meet in any given moment, to me, it totally unique." ~Blessed Mother Teresa~