Leveling the Playing Field

This weekend I was blessed to attend the opening ceremony of a baseball field for children with disabilities. It was a very touching and eye opening experience. First off I’m proud to say that I’m related to some of the people who helped make this field a reality, to know that there are people out there who love God and love their children enough to help them and others like them have this amazing experience of their own field is super awesome. Like my Mom said on our way home “You can either look at having a child with a “disability” as burden or as a gift.” (I potentially paraphrased that but regardless it is still awesome! ;)). And those families I saw today obviously decided to choose the latter.

So a little background on this story… My mom’s cousin and his wife’s oldest son has angelman syndrome and they have been involved with a baseball league for years, they were a very integral part of the team and of making this field a reality; which is how I found out about this and why I was there ;). The field is made out of some sort of rubber (not sure of its technical name and I'm not very good at describing it haha...) which is what makes it user friendly for these kids!

(Photo by my sister, Megan)

 What was really amazing though  was getting to see these kids that, as one of the speakers said, "society tends to forget about" having a chance to do things that other kids get to do in a way that was accessible for them. Which honestly I believe is a basic human right, that regardless of whether who you are or "what" you are you should have the chance to do "normal" activities. It was also inspiring for me to see these kids and these families doing what they love and having the chance to do it. It inspired me to try harder in my activities and my goals, because honestly I believe everyone should have the chance to do what they love and they should have the ability to give it their all. I mean how absolutely awesome is it to see someone in a wheelchair play baseball? Not that I didn't think they couldn't but the fact that they got a chance to is what I'm trying to get at here. In the end what I'm trying to say is that these kids (and all kids) are not "disabled" really they're just another human being and they should be able to play a sport that they love. I'm so happy for them and for their hardworking, loving, and dedicated parents that these amazing kids got that chance.