My daughter, La-Konya Therese, is my sunshine, my heart, my very life. I cannot imagine my world without her.
La-Konya is ten years old, with long, strawberry-blonde hair, big brown eyes, freckles sprinkling her nose and cheeks, and a smile that can melt the hearts out of any pre adolescent boy in her school.
She also has Down syndrome.
At ten, she is just learning how to read and has only learned to write her letters (as well as her numbers and her name) within the past year. She seems to be much younger: while most ten-year-olds like music, boys, computers or phone calls, as well as the latest trends in clothes, La-Konya is content to spend her days coloring in her coloring books, playing with her kitten, watching the snowflakes fall gently outside of her bedroom window, and helping Mama set the table every night.
La-Konya goes to a school for children with special needs; she has lots of friends there. I have no problems with the children at her school: it's the other kids (and even some adults) in mainstream society that I have a problem with, especially when they stare at her or make digs about her obvious disabilities.
I have had to become her personal advocate, fighting for every little thing La-Konya needs, whether it is a fair education, respect from others, a good report from the doctors that she sees on a regular basis, and trying to prove people wrong and make them see that just because she has Down's it doesn't mean that La-Konya is incapable of doing anything she wants to in life.
La-Konya may be behind most kids her age, but she's definitely not stupid. She's quite smart, even with having something like Down syndrome! She is absolutely amazing!!
Well, I hate to go, but I have to pick La-Konya up from the daycare center. She goes there twice a week (Mondays and Fridays) while my wife works later at her job (she works for a high powered attorney; meanwhile, I stay home and take care of things around the house and La-Konya when she's not at her school).
Take care and may God bless you as much as He's blessed me; my world is definitely much nicer since La-Konya joined our family!
