The Payoff

Much to my delight, the risk paid off. The first day of school was amazingly wonderful. The second day was a little more complicated. One of the many things that the aide reported to me was a description that included, "she was really blue" and they also got to see the sad side of Claire that hates her body. But they did great with it. She didn't end up in an ambulance or watching movies plopped in a bean bag, so I consider it a success. Friday I got a call, 40 minutes before school ended. My heart stopped for a minute, it was the teacher calling to ask if Claire could eat ice cream, crisis averted. When I went to the pick up Claire was wearing different clothes. I thought perhaps she vomited because she didn't get time to burp during lunch or she swallowed a lot of air in a seizure, but no, some of her pasta got on her shirt and her wonderful aide thought that she would feel better in clean clothes. Needless to say, I feel like I can take a few deep breaths. She is in good hands. They will be able to meet her needs as well as possible and the rest of the stuff, well, there is just no figuring rett syndrome out. I was also reminded that it's all a little bigger than one person. While there were a few comments based in ignorance, there was no malice. All of the people close to Claire believe in her and she has already started to open their world to hers. After three short days, the thing that I am most impressed with was although I was most aware of the risk, the payoff is something that everyone shares in, Claire is one of those gifts that just keeps giving.