We have a miracle in our son, Christmas Josiah. Originally, we thought we were having a girl; however, when our child was born, "she turned out to be a he". LOL You know how that goes! LOL
We were going to name our little girl Christmas Joy, but since we have a boy, we decided to name him Christmas Josiah. We wanted to keep his first name, so we did. Hence, Christmas Josiah.
As you can probably figure out, Christmas Josiah was born two days before Christmas, which is why he has such a holiday-sounding name.
Christmas (or "Chrissie", as we call him for short) is a child who has special needs. You see that right away, yet that has never stopped him. For starters, he has Down syndrome and is mentally disabled. He is seven, but he has the mind of a three year old. He is still learning his letters and numbers and how to write his name. Secondly, he is deaf and mute: he wears hearing aids in his ears.
To communicate, he uses American Sign Language (ASL). He is very good at communicating, even though he cannot hear.
It makes us sad to know our son is deaf because he cannot hear the beautiful Christmas carols that are so prevelent this time of year, or the ringing of jingle bells; yet the lights and festive sights around him are enough to get him excited. He knows that it is Jesus' birthday, and nothing makes him happier than participating in our church's Christmas Cantata every year. He loves to act; always has.
He does know about Santa Claus and looks forward to presents, but he'd much rather think about Jesus. After all, according to him, Christmas is about Jesus.
Don't let people tell you my son is "retarded" because he is anything but. He happens to be very smart!
If a little child with a disability can figure that out, then we all should take his observations at hand. Christmas would be a lot happier (not to mention, a lot less stressful) if we look at it through Christmas' eyes and mind.
Chrissie is a child who enjoys life. He loves playing with his toy cars and trucks (he has a slew of 'em), annoying his older sister Carrah Grace (she's ten), picking on our Ragdoll kitten (not out of meanness; he just loves to see her fur out and hiss! LOL), "singing" at church (via ASL), and going to his school (he attends a school for children with special needs).
Carrah, our daughter, is very protective of her little brother. She will fight anyone who picks on him, even to the point of physical violence. More than once she's gotten into trouble (or put into detention) at school because she beat the crap out of a child who was picking on her brother. We tell her that fighting won't solve anything; it's just at the time she is so mad she can't think of anything else to do.
Corrah would do anything for Christmas. She loves him with the fierceness of a mother tiger and her cubs.
I am so blessed to have Christmas in my life. He's taught us more about courage, grace, compassion, and love in ways we could have never imagined. He's taught us to look past his disabilities and see a happy little boy who embraces life to the full.
I just wish more people could see that in our son instead of pointing, staring, or making comments! Our son is disabled; he is not his disability!!
I have to run: kids are rising; I hear them walking around upstairs. I will write in here again with more tales about our family. Until later, take care, and may all of you have a very merry Christmas! I wish you could have a little "Christmas" every day; we do, in our son.
God bless you!
~Sincerely, Megs (Meagin) Brookins, Salt Lake City, Utah.
