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They're walking

5/21/2017

Nearly a year ago, two little three-year-old girls in Peru received leg braces. Today they are walking.

They’re students at the San Manuelito School for children with severe disabilities in San Ramon, Peru, the first school we assisted and the namesake of our organization, Amigos de San Manuelito. Their braces were donated by students and parents of Kauri Sue Hamilton School for children with severe disabilities in Riverton, Utah. The students at Kauri Sue have outgrown them and their parents generously gave them to us to take to Peru.

So thanks to the efforts of parents, teachers, and therapists on two continents, both girls are walking. Congratulations, little girls. Felicitaciones, ninas. This is why we go. Por eso vamos.

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Happy Mother's Day

5/15/2017

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I’m writing today in honor of mothers of children with special needs. I’ve had the blessing of getting to know many of you as your child’s teacher. I can never say I’ve walked in your shoes. But I can say how grateful I am that you’ve allowed me to walk with you a short distance along the path. I can thank you for sharing your child with me.

Happy Mother’s Day to you.

Your path is steeper, more rocky, than most. Progress may be measured in baby steps. It’s not the path you generally chose in the beginning, but it is the path you follow.

You and your child have taught me so much. You’ve taught me patience, joy in expression of single words, in walking a single step; peace when one day, or one hour, is quiet and calm. You’ve taught me that every child has strengths, that every child is capable of learning and growing. You’ve taught me that a child who may not be able to speak, or read and write, or sit calmly in a chair, may be capable of love to a depth that those of us on a more traditional path can only imagine.

I have a beautiful granddaughter with Down Syndrome. She speaks very little but her smile is as bright as a rainbow and her laughter is a birdsong in a summer breeze. I'm honored to walk a little ways alongside her mother.

Many of the mothers we meet in Peru are single parents, often struggling with severe poverty. They may wash clothes by hand for a living or sit on the street all day selling bread that they baked before the rest of us even awakened. They carry small children on their backs, wrapped in fabric as bright as the Andes sunrise. Their path is rocky and steep.

Happy Mother’s Day to you, mis amigas. Feliz Dia de las Madres.

Quiero decir Feliz Dia de las Madres a toda las madres de ninos con discapacidades en las escuelas San Manuelito, Senor de los Milagros, PRITE San Ramon, y PRITE Huancayo. Feliz dia y que Dios las bendiga.

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They're walking

Happy Mother's Day

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