"Space... the Final Frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its continuing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before."
I've felt this way since my daughter Windsor was born almost a year ago. Lots of parents of special needs children identify with Welcome to Holland or Amsterdam International to describe their myriad feelings... I'm a nerd at heart, and I identify with Jean-Luc Picard's voice describing the voyages of the Starship Enterprise while the galaxies flash past.
Every day is a Strange New World, a New Life, a New Civilization... and we go boldly on where, literally, no one has gone before.
Windsor is an undiagnosed child. This means there is no easy answer when people ask what's wrong with her. I sometimes wish for an easy answer like, she has Down Syndrome or she's a Klingon. But no, every answer becomes a description of the things she can and cannot do. No, she can't crawl yet. No, she can't see. But her fine motor skills are great! She's right on track cognitively! She's an early talker! She has hypotonia. Well, it's a muscle disorder meaning her brain doesn't communicate with her muscles properly. Yes, her doctors think she'll walk one day. We don't know if she'll ever see.
We go to specialist after specialist. We continue with all her therapy. We're bold. But we break down sometimes.
