Twila Parker is my name. I am 26 years old, married with a very loving husband (been married for 7 years, since I was nineteen), and we have two gorgeous children to call our own. We live in a beautiful rustic log cabin house in Boseman, Montana, near the mountains.
Our children are named Lincoln Randall and Jadlyn Grace; they are six and four years old. Yet this story is about Jadlyn.
Jadlyn was born seemingly healthy, but then, around six months of age or so, we noticed she seemed behind in things. She wasn't sitting up on her own or smiling or doing anything typical six-month-old infants did. She just lay there, crying or looking at us (or not looking at us; she seemed to be in her own little world). Naturally, we got very concerned, so we took Jadlyn to our pediatrician, who, in turn, suggested that we see a pediatric neurologist: he suspected that something neurological was going on.
We then went to see Dr. Kindle. After running an extensive battery of tests (this took several months) and got the results back, he concluded that Jadlyn was blind and suffered from severe brain damage (and possibly spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy). The news, as you can imagined, nearly rocked my world.
Flash forward four years.
Jadlyn is now a beautiful little angel with a headful of thick, curly bright-red hair and intense blue-green eyes that never stop sparkling. She is always laughing or smiling in her special way; whenever people see her sitting there, in her bright-pink wheelchair, grinning ear to ear, they can't help but smile back or at least stop by to say hello. Jadlyn seems to have that effect on people; she always seems to bring out the best in others.
At times it is hard because Jadlyn cannot do a lot for herself, but don't ever let us hear you badmouth our family (Jadlyn, especially!) or make comments about her, stare, or point at her! She is not an object to be pitied: she is a little human child, a child who happened to be born disabled; it's not her fault she is the way she is!!
We try to include Jadlyn in all of our familial activities. We take her out to eat, take her to church every week (she loves learning about Jesus Christ!), take her to the park, take her swimming or dancing, take her to concerts (she's seen many of the best and brightest stars in country and pop music; met them too and had her picture made with all of them!), and so much more. We are not going to leave her home, just because she is disabled; that is beyond ridiculous! She deserves to have as much of a life as anybody else who ISN't disabled!!
Well, I am going to go. Lincoln is screaming about something about a spider in the bathroom; he absolutely loathes spiders! LOL I will have to go and vanquish the little arachnid, so he can calm down. I will write in here again another day; until later, this is Twila Parker signing off! God bless and take care!
~Twila.
~To be continued.~
