Lucas Camilo

Today was a big day — Lucas’s last day of preschool, complete with a graduation ceremony, even for the kids like Lucas who are young enough to repeat preschool again next year.  When getting this far is so challenging, you get extra parties!

Lucas was pretty cool about the whole thing, telling people that it was his last day of school, but likely not fully comprehending what that means.  He loves school — sometimes asks to go on the weekends — and he’ll probably miss the amazing team of people who have loved and supported and taught and stretched him this year.  As we prepared thank-you cards and goodbyes for many people at Lowell school, it was clear just what a large and loving team he has, including his two nurses (you’ll see Marquitta, who works on Tuesdays and Thursdays, in the pictures), his three teachers, physical therapist, occupational therapist, speech therapist, and two wonderful bus drivers. His afternoon bus driver Anitra even came by at the end of the ceremony to bring him a “congratulations!” balloon.

Today also marks the four year anniversary of what we called our “shotgun commitment ceremony celebration” back in 2009.  We spent the day surrounded by family and amazing community of friends.  A highlight of the party was a surprise theater piece enacting the “political history of the shotgun wedding,” which was mostly an excuse for our friends to be hilarious, for Krista’s sister to dress up as a pregnant bride (Krista was five months pregnant herself at the time), and to celebrate our values.  Although our community at the time didn’t include many people who identified as disabled, it is pretty clear from the pictures of that skit that Lucas was about to be born into an incredibly welcoming family and community.  We send so much love out to all of you who were there four years ago.  And thanks and equal amounts of love to all of you who have joined our lives since Lucas was born… just two short months after this photo was taken.

In the photo are Sha Grogan-Brown, Mary Grogan, Mackenzie Baris, James Ploeser, the two of us, Carlos Jimenez, Becky Wasserman, maybe Alan Bushnell holding the self-determination sign, and Janelle Treibitz (the brilliance behind the skit, hidden behind us.)