Caden and his two sisters, Abbey Cate and Presley

Caden is an amazing child.  He is our oldest of three kiddos and is in 6th grade.  I'm not sure if he's so compassionate because he has a sister with Down syndrome (that compassion kind of rubs off) or if it's completely natural.  I tend to think it's a little bit of both.  

He came home from school on his first day of 6th grade and when I asked how his day was, he told me that he wrote it all down so that he wouldn't have to repeat it to everyone.

However, after a few days, he elaborated.  He mentioned that he met a girl in the cafeteria who was sitting all by herself and so he introduced himself to her.  Her name was Lexi.  The next few days Caden sat and ate lunch with her and invited his friends to join them too.  She really likes his friends!  She gives some of them more high fives than him :)

We called Lexi's mom near the end of the week and Caden let her know that he'll help watch out for her and knows of some of his friends who are in her classes and they said they include her in gym and play with her.  He said he didn't see her in other classes though and I tried to explain that not all schools understand the importance of inclusion and what it can do for the students with special needs and those withOUT.  He became very passionate about this in his conversation with this young girl's mom and explained how she needs to be with other peers who don't all have special needs.

Caden recorded his thoughts and you can hear them in the two recordings below.  This was .played at Lexi's ARD in early September and I prayed it opened some eyes and touched some hearts!

God bless this natural advocate, amazing friend and brother!  I am so proud and inspired by Caden and feel blessed that Presley has him for a big brother!

This recording is 6min 22 sec - it's well worth the time to listen!