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One of the joys of having a child with Down syndrome is that they are constantly reminding you of the truly important things in life, simply by living a life full of joy and happiness. They live each day to the fullest, and they live each day full of love.

For Rebecca’s birthday, we took her to see the new Pixar movie “Brave”. Rachel was in town on a business trip, so she met us at the theater. It was a real treat for Rebecca to have her big sister there – it meant an extra lap that she could sit in if things got too scary.

The movie was REALLY good – if you haven’t already seen it, I highly recommend it. I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t seen it; suffice it to say that it is a wonderful movie about the bonds within a family and the power of love.
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As usually happens, Rebecca ended up in Paul’s lap for most of the movie; by the end of it, the 4 of us were only occupying 3 chairs – Rachel was on one side, Paul and Rebecca were in the middle, and I was on the other side.

At the climactic scene – when it looked like all hope was lost – I glanced over, and sure enough, Paul was wiping his eyes; his “allergies” were acting up (he’s such a softie for movies like this – it’s one of the reasons that I love him so).

All of a sudden, I felt this little hand reaching out to hold mine. I looked over and saw that Rebecca was also holding Rachel’s hand. At the moment in the movie when the main character was experiencing the love that exists between daughters and mothers, Rebecca wanted us to share her love as well.

Well, my “allergies” started acting up, too (I think Paul might have lost it at that point – it was a little hard for me to tell…).

Rebecca didn’t want to leave Paul out of the picture (by that time the situation had been resolved and all of the characters were celebrating), so she took Rachel’s hand and joined it to one of Paul’s, then she took my hand and joined it to Paul’s other hand.  She grabbed all of our joined hands, wrapped them around herself in a great big hug, and started giggling with glee. It was a perfect moment.

Rebecca knows what The Important Things are.

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[Cross-posted at Koch's Tour]
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