Life's Little Blessings

So many times, when people find out that I have a son with Down Syndrome, I get the standard, "Oh, they are such blessings, so happy and sweet!"  I know that people are trying to be accepting and nice, but it's times like that when I start to say, "Yeah, until I ask him to move a bit faster or brush his teeth a bit better, or stop fighting with his brothers, or how about when he was little and would simply plop his 45-pound self down in the middle of the grocery aisle until I felt ready to be carted off to the insane asylum?"  Some days, it's difficult to find the blessings that apparently come with having a child with special needs.  But sometimes, like the other morning, something happens to remind me that God does indeed shine through my boy.  It was early morning, still dark, still very cold, and Jared was outside waiting for his bus to school.  As I stood in the kitchen, I heard him singing, his soft voice, floating out, seemingly carried on the ice crystals over the the frozen ground, and for a moment, I was reminded of my blessing.