Happy 30th to me!

Ok so maybe 30 is about a dozen years short of the truth, but it's a nice round number, so I'm sticking with it.
Thank you all for the Birthday wishes-really made my day!
My husband is working tonight, so I celebrated with the kiddos, pizza and an awesome episode of The Voice. Brian has plans for later in the week when he's off. Or so he says...
He already promised to take me to First Fridays in the West Bottoms Shops next weekend, and I would be completely happy with just that! And a Babycakes lemon cupcake.

To all of my wonderful bald kid and Hailey supporters, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. My heart was full of joy with the responses, posts, shares, private messages, emails, phone calls and texts in regard to my last post. I read just some of them to Hailey, and they helped her immensely.
I worried maybe I overreacted with posting the text online, but as my cousin Anthony Rizzuto put it best; "Ethan is an amazing 9 year old with special needs, and is still here on earth, long after doctors told us he wouldn't be, because he needs to help us teach a lesson or two about bullying and hate." And he's right. I didn't overreact, too many people under react -or don't act at all in the face of hate. So if me bringing our incident to light, sparks one conversation between parent and child, or friend to friend, or stranger to the special needs parent looking for just one friendly face in a crowd of parents of typical kids amidst the stares and whispers, then I've done some good.
After much debate with Hailey about whether or not we would pursue forwarding this text on to school officials, she was wrought with uncertainty. I don't understand kids these days, especially little girls. Hailey was genuinely worried we would paint a target on her back and she was worried of being pegged a narc. But it was Parker who surprised me the most. He told Hailey we HAVE to defend Ethan, because he can't defend himself and if we don't do it, who will. And if standing up for him, or anyone else, when someone bullies them makes people not like you, then Too. Damn. Bad. Yep, he said it just like his mother would have. You go Parker.

I also talked to Hailey about what a strong, confident, well-liked girl she is and how she would deal with this, and move on, as that's what strong girls do. But I also explained that the person who sent this text has probably done some sort of bullying before, and will probably continue to. So what about the next time this person sends a nasty text or posts negative comments on a FB or Twitter feed about a girl or boy who lacks the self-esteem she has and God forbid feels that ending their life is easier than dealing with the bully. Could she live with that? Of course not. But it happens, too many times. We all, and I mean ALL of us, have a responsibility to stop bullying and hate and intolerance of those different than us. And as parents, we must not only do this ourselves, but lead by example for our children.

So I ask you, my personal and Internet family and friends, to make this my best birthday year ever, take just one hour of your life this year, just 60 minutes of the 525,600 minutes we will live this year and make a difference in the life of a special needs person or family. Go spend that hour of your life with a special kid, teen or young adult. Go volunteer at a Special Olympics event. Go to a school like Ethan's and spend that one hour in their classroom. Take a friend, take a family member, take your child. Most of these places and events run on shoestring budgets and rely heavily on volunteers. Heck, if you're comfortable enough, I could probably even hook you up with a family who just needs a break, a date night, but can't afford or find a provider to sit with their special child for an hour. Because believe me, if you do this, it may only be 60 minutes of your life, but you will forever be changed by the experience, I guarantee it. And if we could get teens more involved in activities like this, it would go a long way towards changing the negative attitudes associated with handicapped, "different" kids.
I know many high school kids volunteered in classrooms Ethan was in while at CCVI, how come our Northland public schools don't have the same type of program set up around here with a state school right down the street??

Maybe I should spearhead a volunteer program like this?? I'll be thinking of a catchy name and mission statement this week.
Then I'll be looking for locations and volunteers.

Like I've said before; Ethan really is just a simple little boy. In a complex body.
But aren't we all?

In regards to the text and its anonymous, blocked sender, we did speak with the Clay Co Deputies, School Resource Officers, and Administrators at Hailey's school. They have some programs already in place to help weed out the perpetrator in situations like this. Beside the fact that whoever did it is only a child, with a young mind and I'm sure a big mouth, and won't be able to resist running it at some point. If, in fact, it is someone Hailey doesn't attend school with, but maybe knows through her extracurricular activities outside of school, we have had tons of other offers of private investigative, legal help in finding this person. And all in the name of my sweet little bald kid, and beautiful, brave daughter. We will be utilizing some of these resources, and are fairly certain we will know the culprit before the end of the week.

And I have no intention of crucifying this person. We all make mistakes. And maybe, once realizing the magnitude at which these words hurt, and all negative words hurt, I can change the perspective of one kid. Cause every good thing starts with one person's good intentions. And something good has to come from all this, right?

Now excuse me while I crawl around on the floor like a jonesin' for a hit crackhead with my phone for a flashlight looking for the Dialudid bottle I just dropped that rolled into the black pit of dust and unused crap under my bed spilling my beloved pain pills everywhere. Which BTW are not much bigger than the size of a grain of rice.
Momma needs her narcotics.