#TellHisStory: Why Not?

I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. 

Isaiah 62:10a

My daughter cracks me up.  

The other day, my husband decided he would vacuum the family room (I know, he really is pretty  wonderful...).  Thorough man that he is, he saw there were some crumbs in the sofa, so he spent some time vacuuming them up as well.  And of course, I heard about it.  Because we have a family rule:  no eating in the family room.  He knew who'd been eating.  The evidence was clear.  Apparently there had been massive amounts of crumbs embedded in the sofa right where my daughter sits during the day - to work, read, and watch her movies.  Hmmm....

So I asked her about it - 

Me:  Were you eating in the family room?

Sierra:  No, I wasn't

Me:  Really?  You didn't eat in the family room?

Sierra:  No, I wasn't

Me:  Kevin found some crumbs in the sofa...

Sierra:  No, not me

Me:  He said it was a lot of crumbs

Sierra:  At 3:00

Me (realizing that her schedule had her snacking at 3:00):  Oh, do you get a snack at 3:00?

Sierra:  Kevin's chips

Me:  You eat some of Kevin's chips at 3:00?

Sierra:  Yes

Me:  Do you eat a lot of chips, or just a few chips?

Sierra: Two

Me:  You eat two chips?

Sierra: Three

OK, you have to know, I was having a really hard time keeping a straight face about now in the conversation.  A little background - my daughter has Down Syndrome.  She just turned 22.  Her academic IQ is not especially high; in fact, it puts her in the 'moderate' range of functioning.  But she definitely has something special on the social scale.  I already knew she wasn't eating very much of a snack because I buy the chips and my husband hadn't noticed them being gone.  Conversations with my daughter are always fun - I don't want my questions to influence her answers, so it's more a process of teasing out extra pieces of information, sometimes one at a time, until the whole story can be told... 

Me:  Three?  You eat three chips?

Sierra: (smiling now): Four 

Me (smiling too - not sure how much more I can take before I really laugh): Four?

Sierra:  Yes, four

Me:  So you eat four of Kevin's chips when you have snack?

Sierra:  Yes

Me:  Do you eat them on the sofa?

Sierra (voice dropping off just a tad...): Yes

Whole story.  The crumbs were Sierra's.  From eating four chips in the family room, on the sofa, at three o'clock.  I felt like I was playing Clue.  From there, it really was just a matter of re-telling her that she needs to eat her chips in the kitchen - her four chips....

Here's the thing.  I can't imagine my life without my daughter.  She will probably always live with my husband and me.  She is definitely differently abled and so our lives have been differently lived - not in a bad way.  I think we all begin with certain expectations of how our lives will be.  I know I did.  And Sierra was not my expectation.  But I believe she was God's.  Years ago, when she was born,  I know I wasn't the only one who asked, "Why me?"  God said, Why not? and I've been thanking Him ever since.

God, thank you for my daughter.  Thank you for her sense of humor, for her honesty, and for her presence in our lives.  You knew - thank you.

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