Dear Addie,
Some 14 years ago now, when big sister Clara was an inquisitive 3-year-old and brother Gabe just a ball of baby, well before you were born, a special person seemingly bounced into our lives with her infectiously playful spirit, endless energy, and positive vibe. I (semi) jokingly called her our very own Mary Poppins as she always had a bag full of fun activities and let’s not forget treats - I mean what were the odds that she just happens to be a culinary wizard?!
She was practically perfect in every way (see what I did there…), and she became our go-to sitter for Clara and Gabe if ever we needed one, and they were always beyond thrilled to see her. You were born not too long after, and she stuck around with us, three kiddos in now, to enjoy even more of our chaos until we moved away. ***spoiler alert we come back 😉.
We stayed in touch.
She followed our journey.
We grew closer as friends, and when we returned some 4+ years later, I reached out one night as we were in desperate need of a sitter for an event, and she didn’t even bat an eye. The once always shockingly awake, silent baby you were was now a walking, still, semi-silent gibberish speaking, with some unusual behaviors child, and yet it didn’t even seem to faze her. She seemed to understand you on a level that most did not.
She was back.
When I found myself unable to make it to Gabe’s Spanish fiesta at school, she lived within walking distance of the school and gladly filled in and saved the day. Gabe beamed for weeks that she came!
When she showed up at our door with a giant inflatable Halloween dragon because your big sister Clara is the biggest dragon lover on earth (slight exaggeration, but she does love dragons… like a lot), she knew she just had to have it! Coining us owners of the “Dragon House” in the process, and an exciting stop along the neighborhood Halloween route for years to come!
Or when she showed up with an epic bubble machine on a whim because bubbles are your jam, and she just knew you’d squeal with excitement! She had and still has a way of making everyone feel like they are the most important person in the room.
As the years have gone on, she has found herself helping others in our autism community as she seems to have an abundance of patience paired with a natural understanding of those that are uniquely different.
We watched her become a wife and then a mother and couldn’t have been happier for this new chapter in the life she was writing.
We stayed close.
As discussions came up about you needing an aide for school, I didn’t even ask, I wanted to, but couldn’t bring myself to do it. “Excuse me, have you thought about a career change?” Not exactly brunch chat. After a month or two, I finally mustered up enough courage to float the idea and since it wasn’t something we needed right away, there was time to think about it. Luckily for us, it didn’t take her too long before she accepted, and even took it a step further to jump through about 8000 hoops and a bazillion hours of training to become not only your aide but your therapist.
My heart literally melts when I think about our life with this beautiful human.
So having said that, I’ve officially taken a step back as your aide at school (which has a whole new set of feelings I wasn’t prepared for) and, our beloved Ms. Caitlin, one of my dearest friends, our very own Mary Poppins has taken over.
When I think back to how seamlessly she joined our journey, I have to believe it was always meant to be more than just a babysitting gig. She was brought to us because you were coming and in that this unique bond would be born and the rest of us would reap the reward of her amazingness along the way. It was always about you.
Welcome, Ms. Caitlin to a new role on our journey!
Love,
Mom
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