World Dwarf Games part 3 - football

When you have a little you expect a life of step stools, teaching self advocacy, answering questions.

But as with any special need there is a sense of loss sometimes.

I say loss but truly it is that pain in your mommy heart.

For us - it is football.  Brahm LoVES football.  I mean eat, sleeps and breathes it.  He loves the mental part of it.  His big brother plays.   For children with dwarfism they can NOT play tackle football.  Their necks and heads - well football can lead to paralysis.

SO when we saw they were offering a flag football clinic we knew that was a MUST.

And it was everything we expected.!

We were the first ones to the field Brahm was so excited.  But in no time at all it was a pick up game of flag football - just like anywhere else in the USA - except the participants were equivilant in size.

They are jsut as fierce, there are some incredible athletes, there are NO excuses.

It is surprising how one pick up game can heal a mother's heart.  

We realized despite our best attempts 

WE HAD BEEN MAKING and allowing EXCUSES for Brahm.  

We were  afraid since Brahm has a different type of dwarfism he would tower over the other kids

We were "thrilled*" to see he was similar in size.

In fact, we saw so many different looks to dwarfism.

* When Brahm was a baby he was to perfect, to tall the LP community constantly told us.  We felt stuck between two worlds.  So when I say thrilled we were glad that Brahm fit into this community.

1st day of school

Ha!  people ask us all the time if we homeschool and frankly I commend those that do but my children hardly listen to me when it comes to brushing their teeth.  Also our littles REALLY need to be out in the world as much as possible we believe.  Advocacy for them will perhaps be the greatest tool we can teach them.  Brahm not so much - but Fei will be little as in her adult height will be similar to her current peers (1st graders).

We are so blessed by our school - and most importantly we are blessed by our teachers - they LOVE our kids.

So although it is a whole new year, we have all the SAME teachers except Brahm.  Everyone else moved up into last years teachers.

For littles this has been amazing, I didn't have to coach the 1st grade teacher about Fei's needs, she had Brahm last year.

The kindergarten teacher knows we don't treat our children as disabled - we expect them to do the same as their peers to the best of their ability.

It was amazingly an easy morning, especially since the 1st grade teacher took me aside and warned me the bathroom locks hadn't been changed (fei can't reach them to close the door.)

So we have a freshman, a 6th grader, then 2nd, 1st, kindy and preschool (who starts next week but didn't want to be left out!!)

Tao starts next week but we didn't want to leave him out!

Gorgeous girl ready for 1st grade!

Handsome 2nd grader!!

Cav had issues this morning about taking pics, and it was past time to leave

But I was able to snag a phone one from class!

World Dwarf Games 2013 ~ Part 2

Sorry, we unexpectedly had a sleep study for Fei and well school starts Monday!

But I won't hold out on the pictures any longer LOL!

I am thinking this will be a - I dunno 10 part series ugh

So you are more than welcome to just ignore our blog for a bit but I really want to capture some of our trip with the kdis so that I can eventually print books and I dunno, have something for our littles like the bigs scrapbooks LOL!

Ok back to the Show!!

I have to say we thought people gravitated to Fei and Tao because they were dwarfs

Yeah NOPE!!

This years games were the largest ever with 400 athletes and everytime I turned around Tao would be with another girl, a group of girls, getting his picture taken and flashing his dimples LOL!

Perhaps my favorite pic ever of him right down to the cookie crumbs!

Every time someone new fawned all over him, I was sure to remind them that not only was he adopted but he sat on the shared list for a year because no one wanted him.

He is truly a fisher of men!! (and women)

She is the darling daughter of a dear friend who also works very hard in the adoption community

Fei was given these glasses by a new friend and he thought he was hysterical

Siblings hanging out between games

The nice thing is that siblings - well they automatically have something in common with the other average height (AH we don't say normal etc) siblings.  THey hung out together between cheering on the littles in their families.  We hope they learned that the feelings of jealousy, and annoyance are common and natural.

And since I have been asked, Cav well, Cav jsut had a rough trip - 

no schedule

Abnormal food

Abnormal rooms

And a lot of attention on siblings.

AS a funny Fei told him that if he learned to run he would become a dwarf too!

Yeah I am guessing we need to work on her a little.

But truth be told he has been very stubborn about even trying to run, 

and doesn't want to listen to mom at all.  

So he walks fast like he has had a stroke on one side.  

We told him, they had games for him too, when he learns to run.

He also got stared at a ton which jsut made us laugh since ever person at the games were used to the stares, comments and the like!!

Our big kids  well they are awesome and the little littles LOVED them!!

I have to say I love this boy - at 14 he truly has a heart for God and shows it!

We had a free day and the littles got to play flag football (none can play tackle due to head and neck issues)

My next post or 2 will be on this important day

BUT I had to include that fact that Tao played ball for 20 minutes and then. . . 

was once again surrounded by the girls LOL!!

If I was good I would know this mans name but the guys were pretty excited and so I think he is the head coach of Michigan state LOL!!

World Dwarf Games 2013 part 1

We have been MIA and for good reason!

Almost 4000 miles in the car with 6 kids over 3 weeks.

But despite some of the typical, we had an incredible trip.  Since I can't find the photo card from the beginning of our trip I will blog backwards.

THe highlight of our trip - and the reason we planned it in the first place was the World Dwarf Games!

WHAT!! ~

400 participants from all over the world ranging in age from 3 on up.

A week worth of sports

At MSU for the 30th anniversary

And the most amazing athletic Little People I have ever encountered.

We really went for Brahm - it's been a tough year.

We signed up Fei and Tao for the Futures division since we were there.

We didn't know what to expect, we thought little people ~ really how athletic can they be.

It was SHOCKING!!

But lets start with our littles - the futures division was 6 and under.

We did Track and Field, Soccer and Kurling.
Since this was international competition we had to make the decision in May!

We wanted to get Fei off the couch - instead she got the taste for Gold AND rocked it!

They both got medals, & made a ton of new friends from all over the world.

But I will let the pics tell their story!

Opening Ceremonies!

Little man dead last but also the youngest!!

The littlest athlete!

On her way to a gold - with friends cheering her on!!

All American Athlete!

A taste for GOLD!!

Hugs from new friends - because although we were there for the sports, the friendships will last for years!

Onto soccer - Tao wasn't the biggest fan LOL!

His idea of running down the field was to hold his arms straight out until someone picked him up!!
Pretty sure he was DONE at this point!!

But Fei got it - Cheers after scoring a goal!!

MSU soccer players coached and referred -
UMM, yah think you could run me to the other side?!?!

New friends became his biggest fan (ok besides mom and dad!!)