Kindness

I have to be careful what I type because the schools all have HIPPA rules, but I have been wanting to share this story for awhile.  Honestly in Bella’s classes I have a hard time figuring out who is there for therapies and who is there to be a normally developing peer.  Bella is obvious, but the rest are very similar, I can guess, but I am probably wrong on more than one.

But the story I want to share is one of great compassion.  There is a little boy is Bella’s class who has food allergies, I believe pretty extreme allergies, but I don’t know for sure.  He has a restricted diet.  He likes to eat at the same table as Bella.  He also takes great interest in what she eats, because to him, she is also someone who has a restricted diet.

All on his own he was able to explain to his mom all about Bella’s food.  Bella’s class has room parties, people bring in treats for holidays and for their birthdays.  They have an approved snack list to cover kids with allergies, so that whatever treat is brought everyone can eat.  Well everyone but Bella.  Most of the families don’t think about (and probably don’t know) about Bella’s blended food diet.  But this little boy knew that she could only eat this certain foods and explained it so well to his mother that they have been giving Bella special bags of pureed food for the treat bags during class parties.  I was truly touched by their kindness and it brought tears to my eyes the first time I opened up her treat sack and saw food that she could actually eat and enjoy.

I want to thank this family again (even if they never read this) for going out of their way to make Bella feel included.  It means a lot to me.  And should hopefully make us all realize that sometimes it’s the smallest things that can mean a lot to someone.