Poke

Melbourne, Australia

We are very proud of our daughter Kerryn, who is turning 21 in July.

What a lot of hard work!  But what a lot of laughs and rewards we have had along the way!  When she was born, the midwife turned her hands over to find the tell-tale crease in her palms.  My husband saw this happen, but did not realize the significance.

We went through the entire range of emotions of course, then picked ourselves up off the floor and talked about her future.  She was born in Tasmania, so we decided to move back to Melbourne and get her early intervention to give her the best possible chance at life.  She has an older brother, so it was just presumed that Kerryn would follow him into mainstream education.  She was developmentally delayed in walking and talking etc., but she talks non-stop now to make up for that. She attended Secondary College, and is now at a TAFE College to help prepare her for the workforce.  She has enjoyed 10 years jazz ballet, and now enjoys gymnastics instead.  She does swimming, discos every 2 weeks, outings at the weekends for respite for us and regular camping trips.  She has just completed work experience at an elderly persons hostel in the activities centre, and thoroughly enjoyed herself.  I would love see her get a part-time job similar to that, but we don't know yet.  She is the greatest at imitating I have ever seen, and has us laughing such a lot.  She is socially accepted everywhere and enjoys herself in any situation.  We have exposed her to all types of music and theatre from c & w. to opera, and remembers them all.  We don't get any guarantees with any of our kids, and just remember we haven't had any practice at this before.  If anyone had asked you if you could cope with a child who just happened to be born with a disability, the natural answer would be NO - but just think what you have all achieved.