Club Kiddos

In my last life I worked at a Boys & Girls Club…mentoring kids…it was a great gig…that grew me up fast…to see what the world was about…I thought when I was working there with under privileged kiddos that I had figured things out…I saw it all from kids being abused to broken families and kiddos just hungry and alone...we had a group of kids that we “raised”…from the age of 10ish to graduating high school…we only had one not graduate high school…now most are in college and or working…I remember working there and thinking this is the strangest thing I have ever done…I could not relate very well to the kids because I had never walked in there shoes…but I was a latch key kid growing up with a single parent…I had a brother that looked out for me…but he left for the Navy and I was on my own…but I was never hungry…my dad never did or sold drugs and he always tried his best to keep a stable home…not this group of kids they lived with parents as drug dealers…and parents that just struggled with what comes with life…many of these kids we still keep in touch with…they still call to see how we are doing and we keep in touch through facebook…I am still learning from them…last night we ran into Marcus…he was always a great kid with a questionable family but a very close family…when I said Maddox was born with Down Syndrome…he said “ok”…again with any of the Club kids or any of my husbands students that know we have a daughter born with Down Syndrome they say “oh”…no… “I am sorry”…or “maybe she will be ok”…or give us the look of…I am glad it is not me…I remember one student even saying to us maybe there little baby will go to the same school and be in the same class as our Maddox…that was so great and refreshing to hear…I remember just being so amazed at his maturity and wisdom…something I do not have on the this subject…I think it is because Maddox is the first Down Syndrome person I have ever met…I was not raised with her in my classroom or in my neighborhood…today I think it is so neat that Maddox will be in a classroom with other kids and go get help when needed…If only I had the grace that my club kids have…it is something to look forward to…Maddox is a lucky girl to be raised in this day and age…with more education and more people like my club kids and less people like me...