damn the usa and their restrictions

Beware of slight rant:

If only I could live in Mexico...

Today, Todd met with a guy who needed some financial planning advice. The guy also happens to be in our ward and is not real familiar with our family but knows how many kids we have - and he has seen Gabriel.

This guy (I'll call him 'Mr. Man'), during conversation tells Todd that he has a good friend that often helps in an orphanage for special needs kids in Mexico. Apparently there are several children there with Down syndrome that have been given special vitamins and minerals or supplements that have CURED their DS!!! They don't offer that here, says Mr. Man, because the US has too many restrictions on the vitamins.

WOW!!!

Seriously?? It's amazing that Mexico's health system - particularly via the orphanage - is so cutting edge. If only I had access to the Magic Vitamins, my child would no longer carry a triplicate copy of the 21st chromosome that is now found on each and every one of the millions of cells throughout his body. Miraculous.

After Todd informed Mr. Man in a polite, almost passive aggresive way, that it's likely not being cured since it's a chromosomal condition, Mr. Man still insisted that it is, in fact, what was going on there at the orphanage.

Whatever. I wonder if he was wondering why Todd wasn't up to speed on this new discovery that would 'cure' our child. Perhaps he thought he was being helpful and possibly guiding us in a direction we hadn't yet thought of - maybe even expecting Todd to cut the meeting short so we could pack our bags and head off to Mexico. I try to remind myself that even in his ignorance he was just trying to be helpful or even just make conversation. But I'm an overprotective, super -sensitive mommy.

I know that there are supplements that people (even here in the inferior U-S- of -A) give their children with DS in hopes that it's helpful, some do even claim curing many of the developmental delays and 'improvements' in their appearance. But, guess what? I'm not looking for a cure. Not only because I'm not convinced that they work, but because I love Gabriel exactly the way God sent him to me. He teaches me everyday about uncontional love and acceptance that I'm sure I would learn no other way. I look at others with challenges and differences with more compassion than I did before Gabriel.

All that I would change is for others to be able to see us a just a regular family, with a different 'normal' than theirs. Most of the time, I don't feel so different, because most people have been great with Gabriel and my initial fears of ridicule have gone unfounded. Maybe that's why when I hear someone say something as ludicrous as Mr. Man, it gets me going and it makes me do something wild like blog about it.