When Matilda was born, and we found out that she was deaf, I didn't want to think about her future. I was too scared about the things that she'd miss out on, and wondered what kind of life she (and we) would have. A conversation that I had with a friend the other day changed that though.
The friend and I were cleaning up at a mutual friend's business that was ruined in the floods that we had here (75% of our state was affected by floods - currently the death toll is about 20 but rises daily). I was telling her that Matilda has just started telling me to "go away" when she is doing something that she doesn't want help with (flushing the toilet is a big one). The friend told me that when her son (who has autism) started lying to her, she knew that he was going to be OK, because he was doing "normal", albeit naughty, kid things. Matilda is doing so many normal things - she fights with her brothers, she tells me to go away, she says "no" when she doesn't want to do something. With my two boys, these things would have upset me, but with Matilda it helps me to realise that she's going to be fine. Yes, she'll always have struggles and there will be a few things that she can't do (like join the army, which doesn't upset me at all), but for the most part, she'll be a regular kid with a bit of extra equipment.
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