From Kevin

Kevin relayed this story to me today when he got home from school. It brought tears to my eyes.


[Kevin typed this up himself]-


Well, today I was at school and it was lunch. I was playing handball. I was standing in line watching the current game, and someone lost. This kid in line next to me said, "What a retard." I told him, "Hey, don't say retard." (I have been meaning to say this to someone for a while! Lots of kids at my school use the word retard.) Anyway, he asked me, "Why?" I told him, "The word retard is very offensive to disabled people" He said, "Are you disabled?" "No," I told him. "But I have a baby brother with Down Syndrome." "What's that?" he asked me. "It's when you have an exta chromosome. You also learn slower." I explained. "How do you get it?" he inquired. "You can't." I told him. "You have to be born with it." And then, guess what? He told me about a person kind of like that at his church, and he said he wouldn't say retard! I'm very glad I did this.

As a side note, I got those books that I ordered recently. My intent had been to look through them myself first, but Kevin swooped down on them as soon as they arrived and has claimed them. He's currently eating up The Sibling Slam Book and Views From Our Shoes. We've been discussing things a little here and there as he's reading these, and he told me that he thinks that having a brother like Finn is going to be a postive for him and the other kids.