We all have our heartwarming stories of acceptance, perseverance, and triumph. Here is one such story shared by another Playhouse, do you care to share your story?<\/p>\n
My Uncle Mikey\u2026<\/p>\n
I struggle to think of the perfect way to start this as there are so many things I could say. BUT! If I mentioned every single wonderful thing about my uncle, the readers of this blog would have to sit at their computers, phones, or tablets for roughly a month to get to the end of the story.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s start with the beginning of the story, first\u2026<\/p>\n
Born November 1st, 1972, Michael Edward Cota was brought into a world that was not accepting of him, a world that was full of ignorance, hate, and a complete lack of understanding of the beauty, love, and compassion that came along with his extra chromosome. My good friend, Julie Tenant, would call it the Love Chromosome \u2013 and after almost 42, Mikey has shown that love in tremendous amounts.
\nThank goodness he was born to an amazing woman, Eleanor Cota, who began an endeavor to make sure the world accepted and loved her beautiful son, but that endeavor did not come without challenges. It breaks my heart and my eyes begin to swell as I think of the way in which my uncle struggled during his early years of life. After all, there was no Gigi\u2019s Playhouse then!
\nEleanor Cota is no longer with us, but her legacy lives on within her son and it is because of her that I am able to share these stories sadness, triumph, success, compassion, pain, struggle, and, love with you all.
\nThere were no Down syndrome awareness groups, there were no service agencies, there were no teen groups, music classes, or even social inclusion. There were class rooms \u2013 four walls, a few desks, and students who were considered unequal \u2013 my Uncle Mikey being one of those students.
\nHis spirits never dampened.
\nHe grew, he loved, he struggled, and he persevered.
\nHe graduated high school.
\nPerhaps one thing that kept his smile glowing was the special time he spent with his mother each night singing \u201cHis Banner Over me is Love\u201d.
\nAs a young child I can remember my Uncle Mikey going to \u201cwork\u201d \u2013 a type of work study program for individuals with developmental disabilities in which he made very little money to sit around and do very easy tasks, to be pretty blunt about it. It was what he was offered. It was what my grandmother was forced to do for her son to promote acceptance and awareness in any way possible. It wasn\u2019t for lack of trying, my family tried everything they possibly could to give Mikey the life he deserved.
\nEventually, things began to get better for individuals with developmental disabilities, but they were far from perfect. The struggle lived on and Mikey smiled through it.
\nAnd then \u2013 Gigi\u2019s Playhouse happened, and I think Mikey would agree that it is pretty darn close to perfection there.
\nHis life has been forever changed.
\nHe walked in the door to hugs, to smiles, to warmth, and to genuine love. He was accepted. He was loved. He was included. He was treated equally.
\nI remember the first time Uncle Mikey joined me at Gigi\u2019s Playhouse, he just smiled, and smiled, and smiled some more\u2026 asked where the ice cream he was promised was (because Gigi\u2019s Playhouse throws some rocking ice cream parties) and he smiled some more. He met Sonny \u2013 a young man who gave him perhaps the biggest hug ever. Mikey became like a big brother to Sonny and in just a quick moment, it seemed they had known each other for their whole lives. That was the moment I cried. That was the moment I knew my Uncle had found something he had missed out on during his childhood. He met Julie \u2013 who has the warmest smile\u2026 he met Jessica and Grace, who he thought were just too cute. In one single second, my Uncle had a whole new network of friends and people who loved him all thanks to Gigi\u2019s Playhouse.
\nHe met Ally and Heather, and he may have asked Heather to snap a few pictures of him.. just a few..(and by a few I mean a few hundred).
\nHE WAS JUST SO HAPPY!
\nYou see \u2013 Gigi\u2019s Playhouse is not solely about programs for small children, or about teaching children and adults to cook, dance, or sing. It is about spreading HAPPINESS! I can\u2019t recall a time I left there unhappy. It is about LOVE it is about ACCEPTANCE and it is about never forgetting that we are more alike than different.
\nAfter we left the playhouse that day, my uncle immediately wanted to know when the next party was (maybe it was because he wanted to see his friends, maybe it was because he wanted more ice cream \u2013 I believe it was a combination of both). He continued to ask about his friends \u2013 do they miss him, how is Sonny doing?
\nOBVIOUSLY he returned to the playhouse often and attended events such as their World Down Syndrome Day Celebration at Destiny USA \u2013 that was one of his favorites. He was so happy that there was something that was \u201call about him\u201d \u2013 he must have had 30 plus people come up to him that night and I am telling you that smile never faded! Gigi\u2019s Playhouse creates smiles \u2013 so many smiles.
\nTHANK YOU to the playhouse volunteers, parents, friends, EVERYONE who has touched my uncle\u2019s life and who has devoted their time to bettering the lives of others through such simple gestures. Gigi\u2019s Playhouse is a life changing place \u2013 for all ages, all abilities, and all people. Gigi\u2019s Playhouse is creating a powerful movement towards acceptance and achievement and lives are being changed every single day.
\nOn behalf of my Uncle I would like to end by saying don\u2019t ever take advantage of the wonderful things we have in our lives today, don\u2019t ever lose sight of blessings- like the playhouse- for there was once a time when playhouses didn\u2019t exist. There was once a time when differences weren\u2019t embraced. We must appreciate the time we are in now and the progress that is being made all around us\u2026 For Mikey, for Julie, for Sonny, for Grace and Jessica, for everyone.
\n\u201cAcceptance. It is the true thing everyone longs for. The one thing everyone craves. To walk in a room and be greeted by everyone with hugs and smiles, in that small passing moment, you truly know you\u2019re loved, needed, and accepted.\u201d \u2013 Rena Harmon<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We all have our heartwarming stories of acceptance, perseverance, and triumph. Here is one such story shared by another Playhouse, do you care to share your story? My Uncle Mikey\u2026 I struggle to think of the perfect way to start this as there are so many things I could say. BUT! If I mentioned every…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":141782,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspirational-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/atlanta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/atlanta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/atlanta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/atlanta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/atlanta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/atlanta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/atlanta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/atlanta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/atlanta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/atlanta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}