Never a dull moment...

What started as a quick trip to Starbuck's on Christmas Eve Day turned into quite a teachable moment with Taylor. I was standing in line with Taylor, waiting to order a cup of coffee, when Taylor saw a little girl a few people ahead of us in line with her mom. Taylor did what she usually does when she sees another kid; she walked up to talk to her.
Once Taylor was up there with the girl, I saw Taylor's expression change a little bit and then she looked at the girl and said " Hey, you look weird" and walked back over to me.

Okay, I about melted into the floor and was completely shocked when she said that. I was mortified,to say the least. I saw the little girl whisper into her mom's ear (because her mom had not heard Taylor)and told her what Taylor had said. Taylor went and sat down to wait for me and soon that mom went over to Taylor and talked to her. I was finishing up in line when the little girl's mom approached me with her girl beside her and said "Your daughter told my daughter she looked weird." I looked at the little girl and said "I am so sorry she said that. You are absolutely beautiful." Then they gathered their stuff and began walking out the door.

Let me just pause here and say this...I was just going out on Christmas Eve Day to get a cup of coffee and take Taylor out on an errand with me. I was not expecting this. I mean, can you ever be prepared for what could possibly come out of your child's mouth? It takes a lot to shock me but I can honestly say I was shocked when Taylor said that. If I could have taken back her words, oh, I would have. I know how much words can hurt and the last thing in the world I want is for my daughter to hurt someone else with her words!!

So, after this lady and her daughter walked out of Starbucks, I still did not feel good about our interaction and I felt that this mom was still upset so I walked out after her, with Taylor, and apologized again. I had Taylor apologize once more and then Taylor began talking to the little girl, telling her she liked her hair,etc. The mom then opened up and said "Kids can just be so mean. My daughter often gets teased at school." Her daughter did look different and her eyelashes on one eye were completely white and she had a white eyelid. My guess is Taylor had never seen anything like that and she just said what came to her mind.

I told the lady that I have a son with Down Syndrome, and so he will probably look different too and so that will be something we will address in our family the rest of our lives. The mom then told me that her little girl has vitiligo , which is what has caused the white spots on her face/eyelids,etc. Well, how about that? I have vitiligo too!!!! I immediately told the little girl that I had vitiligo too and showed the little girl my hands and the lack of pigment there. I gave her a high five and said "We are special,aren't we? This is how God made us!!" and I think the mom was as shocked as I was that this had happened!

We talked for a bit longer, mainly about vitiligo, and then I told the little girl once again that I thought she was beautiful before they left.

As you can imagine, I talked to Taylor all the way home about how God has made us all to look different from one another and I talked about what you can and can not say to people. I tried as best I could to drive this home and then we had further discussion once we got home and I was able to tell Phillip what had happened. We then prayed for the little girl from Starbucks and we also prayed about how we use our words.

Aaaaahhh, never a dull moment, right? And all I wanted was a cup of coffee (-: