A Mother’s Day Message from Emily

There’s a certain sweet darkness that comes with being the mother of a child with a disability. A knowledge that this is a gift that could disappear at any moment. 

We watch our fellow moms suffering loss and illness. We send prayers and support and thank God that it isn’t us, but it’s always there. We look extra hard at funny spots, changes in gait, mood swings that words cannot explain. We breathe a sigh of relief when they seem to disappear the next day. 

We hope our children leave this earth just moments before us, so they are never alone and we don’t experience an existence without them.   

We pray people will be kind to them when they go to school or leave the house.  We truly never know if they are or if they are not. 

We are hugged and loved beyond that of the mother of a neurotypical child. We meet their gazes of deep unending love. Can we ever be worthy of the love our children show us? We sacrifice everything for that love. 

We may never know what it’s like to be empty nesters. We listen to the typical concerns of sports, college, driving, marriage, jobs. We smile. But there is always a pang of defiance for our special ones, for whom nothing is guaranteed and for whom everything is hard fought for.

I am the proud mother to a child with Down syndrome. His extra chromosome is a gift and a blessing that I trudge heavily through life with.

~ Emily Mondschein, Executive Director of GiGi’s Playhouse Buffalo