{"id":756,"date":"2016-06-22T11:56:51","date_gmt":"2016-06-22T15:56:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/raleigh\/?p=756"},"modified":"2016-06-22T11:56:51","modified_gmt":"2016-06-22T15:56:51","slug":"grand-opening-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/raleigh\/grand-opening-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"Grand Opening 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Grand Day in the Triangle<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\nSaturday, June 18th, is now another day that will live in my heart forever.\u00a0 Not just for the momentous Grand Opening of GiGi’s Playhouse Raleigh, but for the crystal clear validation it provided in the moments of the day.\u00a0 Validation that many families will be helped by GiGi’s; that our community at large will grow because of GiGi’s (both in understanding and involvement) and most importantly; that our children, our beloved children, will grow in their learning opportunities and in acceptance.<\/p>\n

It starts with when I walk up at 2:05…things are in FULL swing.\u00a0 There are people EVERYWHERE.\u00a0 I look at the crowd in front of GiGi’s entrance, easily a hundred outside.\u00a0 I look to the field, full of kids and families, and volunteers seemed to match the headcount of attendees.\u00a0 The emotion of the moment seizes me and the tears flow.\u00a0 My words choke as I say, “Oh my goodness, look at all these people!”<\/p>\n

I get my act together enough to check-in at the registration table, take the sunglasses off, wipe the tears away and go inside.\u00a0 Another hundred people it seems.\u00a0 Faster than you can say “where’s my tissue”, more tears come.\u00a0\u00a0 Standing room only.\u00a0 Parents, kids, local community supporters – an overwhelmingly beautiful sight!<\/p>\n

I make my way back outside, buy a few t-shirts, talk to a few parents, then I head to the field to find the rest of my family.\u00a0\u00a0 Eli on the swing set enjoying the blue skies of the day.\u00a0 Carter is saying hi to (wait for it) a baby.\u00a0 He LOVES those babies!\u00a0\u00a0 Claudia has quickly found yummy food (waffles) donated by yet another amazing local community member.<\/p>\n

The feel-good moments start taking over.\u00a0 The first:\u00a0 a young man cutting loose and dancing to Michael Jackson’s “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” in the wide open field.\u00a0 When I say he was “in the zone”,\u00a0 I mean he was FEELIN’ it and it was pure joy watching him!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Next up, I listen to the speakers presenting prior to the Ribbon Cutting ceremony.\u00a0 Story after story, the tears flowed. Tears of joy. Tears of resilience. Tears of a positive future.<\/p>\n

One particular story inspired me to the core.\u00a0 The story of a single mom.\u00a0 A single mom with a beautiful daughter.\u00a0 A daughter that she dreams and hopes for relentlessly.\u00a0 Dreams of the “skies the limit” variety.\u00a0 And she’s doing all this dream fulfilling, while juggling a corporate job because that’s HOW she, and only she, can make it all happen.\u00a0 I am MOM, hear me roar – Whoa!\u00a0 I’m in awe of this momma-warrior.<\/p>\n

And then, the story that brought it all home and wrapped it up in a beautiful “Tiffany Blue Box” moment for me was overhearing a dad share his story.\u00a0 A casual conversation, not intended for me, yet I couldn’t help myself.\u00a0 His story, slightly abridged, went something like this…<\/p>\n

“…before coming here we have never been around any families with a child like ours.\u00a0 There are only a few in our county.\u00a0 It’s wonderful to see so many like us.”<\/p>\n

I move in a little closer to hear more, and am greeted by their gorgeous, smile-filled baby boy, who happens to have Down syndrome.\u00a0\u00a0 He is a few months old and has gorgeous hair to match the twinkly smile.\u00a0 The story continues:<\/p>\n

“…We drove down from Virginia because friends of ours here told us about the Grand Opening.”\u00a0 They drove hours to come to this event.\u00a0 Hours!\u00a0 As a result, they were able to look around a room and not feel alone.\u00a0 Not feel different.\u00a0 They experienced what it was like to be surrounded by this incredible tribe.\u00a0 This beautiful place where we lift our children up and celebrate their milestones like it’s the 4th of July or something.\u00a0 Truth be told, it does kind of feel like that, often!<\/p>\n

The Down syndrome journey is more beautiful than I can ever possibly describe in one post.\u00a0 But, I hope that in this one, tiny snapshot of an afternoon, you can see how much our journey is not much different than that of any other parent.\u00a0 Dreams, goals, community – we enjoy them all!\u00a0 Welcome to the Triangle GiGi’s Playhouse Raleigh.\u00a0 Thank you Nancy Stinger- Gianni for the trails you’ve blazed to make Down syndrome part of the global conversation.\u00a0 #GenerationG #DownSyndrome #CountingBlessings<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Grand Day in the Triangle Saturday, June 18th, is now another day that will live in my heart forever.\u00a0 Not just for the momentous Grand Opening of GiGi’s Playhouse Raleigh, but for the crystal clear validation it provided in the moments of the day.\u00a0 Validation that many families will be helped by GiGi’s; that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":115,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wpo365_audiences":[],"wpo365_private":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-generationg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/raleigh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/raleigh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/raleigh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/raleigh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/115"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/raleigh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/raleigh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/raleigh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/raleigh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/raleigh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}