And it begins

At the store today a woman that we have known for quite some time approached us. She wanted to say hello. How thoughtful was my initial reaction. She saw Emma in the cart and said, "H-E-L-L-O B-E-A-U-T-F-U-L G-I-R-L.....H-O-W A-R-E Y-O-U T-O-D-A-Y?" A little louder and a lot slower than you would speak to most people. My mind started spinning around this for a minute. It began to think "What???? She can hear just fine....and she understands you very clearly too....there is no reason to speak to my child louder or more drawn out than you would any other child. She simply does not answer like other children do. It's quite simple really.

Granted, I do want people to talk to Emma. I don't ever want people to just walk by us because they don't know what to say. I just want people to treat her as a normal little girl. True, she is exceptional. However, I am still a mom that just wants to go about my day to day business with my child in tow knowing that our world is just "normal". It is our version of "normal" and we wouldn't have it any other way.