Eagle Dancer is my grandson (my oldest daughter's son).  He is eight years old.  He lives with us because my daughter couldn't cope with his disabilities.  He has Down syndrome, epilepsy (seizures), and borderline autistic.  He can be a handful at times, but I wouldn't trade him for all the gold in the world or all the tea in China.

My wife, Renna, and I love taking Eagle wherever we go: to McDonald's for our morning coffee (of course, Eagle has juice or scrambled eggs while we grown ups nosh on bagels, burritos or Egg McMuffins, and coffee, sometimes Coke or water), to the mall (while we walk, we push Eagle in his stroller because the extra walking is too hard on his heart),  and/or on trips (the last trip we took, we went on a cruise to the Mexican Riviera; we all had the best time, and Eagle was the hit of the cruise: everybody loved him!).

People are  used to seeing our little "tagalong".  They may stare at first because he looks or acts different, but soon they forget about that when they hear Eagle singing or see him dancing (in his own way), coloring in his coloring books, learning his name and numbers, and playing with his baby brother, Wolf Storm, who  is two and a half months.  Wolf lives with us as well, and is perfectly healthy.

Wherever I am, Eagle (or Wolf) are sure to follow.  Whatever we do, they want to be in the middle of the action.  If you ask me, I think that is true hero worship: we, his Bapa and Bama, are the most important people in his life.

At first, we were very disappointed that Glenda didn't keep Eagle, but then we understood why.  Glenda is a workaholic: she is married to her job.  She doesn't have any time for social activities, let alone, taking care of her house or especially her children, so she decided to let us, her parents, raise the boys instead.  The arrangement was perfect: we couldn't be any  happier than we are at the present time.

We help Eagle try to catch up with his peers, but he will probably always be behind kids his age.  He is functioning at the level of a preschooler, even though he is eight years old.  Wolf, on the other hand, is a typical little newborn: sleeps most of the time, that or cries, poops, or pees.  It's his way of letting us know he needs attention; he is very good at letting us know about it too! LOL

We were sad at first when we found out that our one grandson was born disabled, but now that he is here with us twenty-four/seven, we will do everything possible to help him reach his full potential.  He is certainly special and we cannot imagine not having him here with us!  And now we have the added bonus of having litttle Wolf with us too, so that makes life with our boys/grandsons even more memorable!