Riley had a conflict back in December. His first obligation, I thought, was to support his program and perform with his band at their holiday concert. Riley spoke with his teacher about a conflict that arose with his mutual group. They had been offered the chance to sponser a special needs ward for their weekly activity. Riley really wanted to attend that activity with a few other band kids in our ward. The teacher gave him a pass and let him write an essay to get credit back.
Both Cambry and Riley came home and told me how neat it was. Riley mentioned they'd played a game he was familiar with where you try to pop balloons tied to ankles without having yours' popped and how much fun it was play with these special needs kids. Cambry had a girl who wanted to sit by her and be her best friend.
That Sunday the special needs ward came and presented a sacrament meeting program to our ward. What a touching meeting!!! One leader told us how unusual our youth were, as they have wards meeting with them weekly. She said that a lot of boys are very competetive when it comes time to play games. But our youth were playing with the special needs people and some of our boys actually held out their balloons to be popped.
During the meeting, Cambry's special friend waved to her from the stand. When Cambry responded, the girl motioned to Cambry to be certain that the gesture was directed to her and upon getting an affirmative, demonstrated pure glee.
At the conclusion of the meeting, a mother whose child is in the specials needs ward approached Riley with tears in her eyes. She grabbed his arm and told him how impressed she'd been with him and that it was an honor to witness him passing the sacrament.
Those are moments a mother can't create.
1 comment:
That was neat to read about. :)
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