Life is sweet and so are little girls

Life was so much easier when my girls were little. I was speaking to an old friend today that I just happened to bump into at church. She shared with me the dilemma she had been through with her teenage children. I could totally understand her pain as our family goes through trials of its own. When the girls where little they were so cute with the way they looked after their Dad. Very quickly they learned that their Dad could not see everything they were up to. Child number three was especially the most cluie in this regard.

Child number three was born with the after effects of me having undetected gestational diabetes. At only a few hours old she was having seizures due to her blood glucose levels plummeting. Needless to say she had grown up to have a very sweet tooth.

This child was also a very good climber and if there were any treats in the house she would sniff them out no matter where they were hidden. She would climb the chest of draws, the pantry shelves or the door jamb to reach any height and nab herself a sweet reward. Not much has changed in her 16 years.

Needless to say this child had become an expert in hiding any evidence…wrappers were found in her pillow case, tucked under the springs of her bunk bed, or even behind the s bend in the toilet. On one occasion where I had found that some birthday sweets were missing in the cupboard I asked Dean to sort it out as I prepared for the evening meal.

Off he went doing the dutiful Dad thing. At the time child number three was only 18 month old. We knew that she had been in the cupboard because all the tell-tale signs were evident, similar to that of a mouse making a mess in your cupboard but instead of filthy mouse droppings and tiny corners of packets chewed open we found the pantry door left wide open, dining chair propped in front of the open door and several packets of cereal spilt all over the floor with a scattering of sweet wrappers on top.

Deano calling out her name he did three laps of the house not being able to track her down. The fourth time I silently followed behind him. To my utter amazement this sneaky cheeky little girl had worked out how to avoid being caught by her blind father. With her back up against the wall and hands flat against the plaster, head tilted so one side of her face was pressed up to the hard gyprock, like a jewellery thief that you see in the movies she was allowing her father to walk right past her so that she could not get caught. She has even worked out that if she used the door jamb that lead to the corner of the room she would have less chance of being sprung. Oh how children learn so quickly! To this day we marvel at her ability to work this trick out at such a young age and how smart she was to notice that her dad was not able to see her in different situations such as different light aspects of a room.

Although this does not seem like an earth shattering event it is just one of those little memories we have of rearing our girls and just a little extra obstacle in parenthood we never thought that we would have to face. Now days the obstacles seem so much bigger and more frightening but not caused by their father being blind but caused by a world that is blinding choices for youth. Never before has the internet been so accessible to our youth and I feel that some young people just don’t see the real world beyond the screen. I know that Deano would die to see the real world as I do, and perhaps one day he will, maybe not in this life time but in the next. My only wish is that our children don’t take their life and sight for granted and live life every day with a grateful heart and see in themselves what potential they have to make a difference for good in this world.

Mortdale Public School 30 Year Reunion....those were the days my friend :)

It's been a while since I have blogged and I have many people asking me to return to writing my experiences. Last night I had a 30 year reunion with all my primary school friends. Growing up in Sydney it was highly unusual that you would go to a co-ed high school. All my friends after year 6 were girls as I attended an all-girls high school. Luckily enough though I have some great friends that are rather nostalgic and organised a reunion with both the girls boys I grew up with until we parted ways at the age of 12. It was a tremendous evening with love, life and laughter shared. Four of our past teachers were there. We were sharing our life events, showing photos of our children and sharing lovely stories of life experiences.

Everyone seemed to be fascinated that I had chosen to marry a blind man. Mrs Dixon my year three teacher had been reading my blog and had seemed touched by my story. In a conversation between her and Mrs Dwyer I shared with them my thoughts of really being prepared for my journey back in the days of primary school. You see Mortdale Public School has never been just an ordinary primary school. In my school yard there was a meld of Croatian, Serbian, Greek, Italian, Macedonian Vietnamese and a few of us left over children decadents from convict genealogy. Not only did we meld together our friendships and learnt to get along we were also from different religious background, some atheists, Mormon, Anglican, Catholic, Roman Catholic, Seventh Day Adventists, Jehovah’s Witness, and I am sure there are a few more that I didn't even really know about. Thrown into this mixing pot of kids there were children that had special needs both in my classroom and also in an adjoining special needs school known as Carinya. At the rear of the school there was an intense specialist English as a Second Language School and children with language delays attended the school here for intense reading and writing classes. One of my sisters attended this part of the school due to a language delay.
At lunch time our school yard was shared with children at all ages and stages of development. One teacher, Mrs Dwyer, remembered how amazed she was that the Croatian boys would play football in one direction in the yard and the Serbian children would play soccer in the other direction but cross over the same play space harmoniously as the games were played simultaneously.
For myself I loved helping the special needs children climb in and out of the timber play house and was a nominated helper often at lunch times to keep an eye on some of the children with special needs to give assistance when needed. I also really loved playing tips in the yard and catch and kiss was also a favourite game.
It was so kind of my past teachers to tell me I was a good girl in class. I always thought I was perhaps a little too talkative as all of my report cards from kindy until year 12 said "Janelle has potential but tends to talk too much in class" I had a hidden suspicion that they sat me next to boys in class so I wouldn't talk too much. But my teacher Mrs Ingram memories have drawn a little thin and tell me it was probably the boys that were naughty and needed to be sat next to a good child...how sweet of her to say.
I can easily say that my life was prepared right from the beginning with loving teachers in a great inclusive environment so when I met Dean and found out that he was blind it really didn't cross my mind to not be with him because of his disability. It was just a normal thing to do...to have him as my friend, lover and companion for life has enriched my journey, and taught me many lessons along the way. I am no super woman just an ordinary person with an irregular passion for life, dragging my life long partner in crime along with me, for the ride. Inclusiveness in society is the key...it should be a normal part of life right from the beginning so it's not an amazing thing to meet a woman who chose to marry a blind man. I suppose life is not idealistic and so my story will still strike some people as unusual.