I am Paige's mom: November 2011

In 1993 we bought our first boat. Our 4th baby, Cole, was almost 1 year old. Now, let me just say...I AM AFRAID OF WATER! I'm not a water person, therefore, swimming is not generally on my list of things I like to do. But my sweet husband was sure that this would be a great family activity...boy was he right! Boating became the love of my summers. I was thrilled to watch my kids learn to swim and love the water! So different from any of my water experiences as a kid. A typical boating day went something like this...put the boat in the lake, drive about 300 yards to our favorite little cove, throw out the anchor, turn on the radio, pull out the coolers full of food and spend the day as a family swimming, fishing, eating, laughing, jumping off rocks, and eating some more. After awhile we would pull up anchor and pull the kids around on knee boards or in tubes. We would go home at the end of the day sun kissed, exhausted and happy. I can't tell you how many times I would look at my hubby and say, wow, this is the best money we ever spent! Of course he would smile remembering how much I DIDN'T want a boat!

As the years passed we followed the same routine except we spent less time anchored and more time pulling big kids on wake boards and boogie boards. The tube rides were more exciting if they wanted the "full meal deal" from Dad. The "full meal deal" consisted of Dad driving the boat like a crazy maniac trying to get you out of that tube! Of course I was in the boat with my eyes closed yelling 'SLOW DOWN BEFORE YOU KILL SOMEONE!" Everyone else was having a great time trying to get killed. We had to put more food in the coolers because the kids ate more and instead of jumping off rocks they graduated to jumping off cliffs. As usual, we would drive home tired and happy.

When Paige was born I just figured our boating days were over. Looking back, I have no idea why I thought that, but in the first few days of her being here I just knew our lives would never be the same, therefore, no more fun boating trips with the family. It just didn't seem possible to take a child with a disability out on a boat, or if we were able to take her, what fun would that be?

I was sitting with her in the NICU one day when a nurse came in and gave me a video to watch. It was about a young girl with Down Syndrome, her name is Karen Gaffney. I sat in the mothers lounge and turned on the TV and started watching. I was quite impressed with this little girl, she went to school with everyone else her age, she loved playing on the playground and she worked hard in school and did quite well. She was also an avid swimmer! As I watched the video I started to feel hope that Paige would be able to accomplish some things, then, at the very end of the tape was something that changed me...as the ending credits were playing there was Karen, riding in a tube behind a boat with the biggest happy grin I had ever seen! As silly as it sounds now, at that moment, I felt hope! It slowly began to register in my little pea brain that maybe our boating days weren't over after all!

Well here we are 10 years later and I am here to tell you that not only did our boating days never end, they became sweeter, more fun and at times down right hilarious, or frustrating, however you want to look at it.

The next summer after Paige was born we started our days of boating just like any other summer. Since she was just a baby she would spend her days playing in the boat or sitting in one of the tubes splashing in a little water. She was definitely a water baby!! She loved water from day one. As she got older the real fun began...we soon learned that someone would have to hang on to her until the boat came to a complete stop and the engine was turned off. That kid could not wait to get in the water!! Of course we always had a life jacket on her but it became apparent right off the bat that she was a fish in the water. She had no fear! She was born to swim and to this day swimming is one of her very favorite things to do. The hilarious/frustrating part came down the road when she was a little older. The big kids were really into wakeboarding at this point, when they crashed and we went back to get them, as soon as we stopped, so they could get ready to go again, Paige would jump in, and not want to get back in the boat. Well, no one wanted to jump in and get her so we would stand in the boat and wave bags of cookies trying to entice her back to the boat, that never worked, which was surprising because cookies were right up there on her love list. A few times, after we realized she was afraid of sharks, yessss, we did it...we would yell SHARK to get her back in the boat. That usually worked.

At this point she is a pro at boating. She doesn't jump in until we say it's ok, when it's time to get back in she does much better at that too. This past summer was her first time riding in the tube by herself. Her smile was priceless. I think back to that day many years ago and think about how silly and ignorant I was to think that our boating days were over because Paige has Down Syndrome. Like everything else in our lives, she just makes it more enjoyable!