Little Lucia: Snowflakes and Playground

Yesterday I visited the three 1st grade classes at Lucia's school, something I have been meaning to do for a while. Lucia is in her special class and has some interaction with the other 1st graders but it's pretty minimal. I just wanted to visit the kids with Lu and share a bit about her- "She is 6 years old just like you! She loves to swing and listen and sing and be tickled... although it appears Lucia and some of the kids in her class might seem different they still love to be included, love for you to say hi, love for you to tell them stories, love to have new friends... most kids are actually very similar to you in a lot of ways... " I answered some questions, showed them how she can stand and she nailed it! :) and walked out of the room hopeful that Lucia would make a new friend or two down the road.

Lucia had ART class next and attends with one of the 1st grade classes each week. I had some more time before I picked up my littles so I stayed. Lu and I were doing some finger painting and two little girls came up and each gave Lucia a little piece of paper they had made- this is for Lucia they said and I asked them to talk to her. "Here you go Lucia - I made this for you." I asked her para if that happens often and she said no, never. So it's not much but a little snowflake paper-thingy was a gesture big enough to make my heart so happy and I know it warmed my bird's heart immensely. My girl, my sweetest bird, had some new little girls, maybe friends, do something nice for her, on their own. Inclusion is not easy but we try and we push and even if it's baby steps it is a step in the right direction. Thank you girls for brightening our day with your little sweet snowflakes.

Snowflakes: a feathery ice crystal or slightly frozen ice..happens to be a great segue for this! About 6 months ago as we were planning fundraising for the playground, my friend Elyse mentioned making the Frozen song-"Do You Want To Build A Snowman?"-into our own song about a playground. I loved the idea and immediately started talking to my kids about it. Pretty soon we settled on our own lyrics and it turned into an everyday, several times a day song that we would practice and sing and sing...Do You Want To Build A Playground? We turned it into a video with the help of an amazing filmmaker, Elizabeth Colunga, who insisted on doing it all pro-bono. I think it's one of the most touching and beautiful and heartbreaking things I have ever seen. The video really sums up our mission in 60 seconds. We decided to turn it into a social media campaign..a GoFundMe and release it now. Our little Scout sings, brother River runs around and happily plays, and LuBird and her friends sweetly and patiently listen and watch on the sided and hope...

Inclusion in the school is not easy but it seems to be getting better and inclusion on a playground should be a given but it's not. We are trying to change that. We are halfway to our goal and are hoping and praying and working to make our playground dream come true. With every snowflake -big or small- we will celebrate being that much closer.

Here is the video and the GoFundMe link with the video included. Please watch and share if you will and help us make it possible for all kids to play. We are so thankful to be halfway to our goal, the support has been amazing, but still have more to raise. GoFundMe LuBird's Light Foundation