Day Five: Lights in the Sky

Day Five of the "31 for 21 Blog Challenge" for Down syndrome Awareness Month! 

What is the coolest way to end the night before bedtime?  My brother called to let me know that if I rushed my girls outside, we could see the International Space Station for another two minutes before it disappeared.  I guess I’ve been living under a rock, because although I knew there was a Space Station and have followed the news about it for almost fourteen years…I really had no idea that if you looked up at the right time, you could actually see it zooming through the sky.  So he called me, I said “Got it!” And then I ran down the hall after hanging up on him and yelled for the girls to come on and follow me.  I guess because I was grinning, they didn’t panic when I hollered at them; instead, they jumped up and ran after me. 

We ran outside and sure enough, bright as day, there she was: a bright, beautiful, shining light zooming across the night sky.  My girls were so excited.  Madison laughed and talked about how pretty it was, how exciting.  Sydney was a little quiet for thirty seconds, but then she recovered when I told her that was where she would be stopping off before heading to the other side of the Milky Way.  Then she wanted to know all about it.  Are there any people up there?  How long do they stay?  And on and on, just bubbling over, just beautiful! 

I didn’t realize till later that the Space Station is only scheduled through 2020.  I wonder what happens to it then.  In six years, Sydney will only be sixteen years old, her space craft will be what I hope is a really safe car that transports her from one planet to another, aka…school and home, maybe sports practice and a job.  Madison will be eighteen, first year of College, because Mom won’t budge on that one.  I look at these little girls that are running through the house rushing to see a Space Station zoom across the sky, and I try to imagine what it will be like to have two young women in our house.  Will they still find excitement in running through the house to see the Space Station zoom across the sky its last time?  Or will they be too busy with boys, school, and the excitement of their lives to care?  You notice I said Boys first right?  Boys have cooties and are evil…only Sydney keeps her distance, though she already knows that’s not true.  Luckily, she still finds kissing gross.  Madison is beginning to notice the boys, and they’re starting to look back too.  Thank goodness, she is not as great at noticing, which is a relief!  A perfect example, the girls play basketball on Sunday mornings, and she and her sister are two of the three girls in a group with twenty other boys.  My girl is so intent on Basketball, that she hasn’t taken notice of at least two of the boys that are taking notice of her.  Let’s hope it stays that way! 

For now, I just downloaded the ISS Watch app on my phone with alarms set to make sure I know when we have the best chance to see it go zooming across the sky.  Because right now; my little girls, at ten and twelve, still find it exciting to hang out with Mom and look at the sky, I know it won’t last forever, the Space Station has the same time constraints that childhood suffers, but until the time comes…every moment, every chance, every way I can make a connection with them that will live in their memories and hearts…that’s my plan.