When Sophie was 4, there was some question as to whether she actually qualified as mentally retarded (the official term they used then — and still do, to a large part). I really liked the idea of having a kid with Down syndrome who wasn’t retarded, even though all the medical literature tells you the […]
Sophie had her first official Special Olympics experience Saturday — a regional track meet. It was pretty freaking awesome. Not a lot of pomp and circumstance, no opening ceremonies as promised in the email, and the whole thing felt a little disorganized (although the volunteers were all terrific). But there was a medal ceremony for […]
Track and field practice has been really great for Sophie — tonight she even set a personal record in the javelin, throwing it 10 and a half feet (I think — it was 10 and a half something). But it never occurred to me that Special Olympics would lead Sophie to ask such hard questions. […]
He stood on the edge of the track, away from everyone else; he’d arrived late and missed most of the stretching exercises. I noticed him right away. Others brought water bottles to Special Olympics practice, and Sophie had her special purple javelin with her, but this boy — probably in his mid to late teens […]
