Back in November, you got to hear me ramble on about our favorite DVD series, Signing Time, and why we love it so. But in mid-October, our love affair with Alex, Leah, Hopkins and Rachel became that much stronger.
One Saturday, bright and early, we woke up and drove down to Fairfax, Virginia. We were headed to the Down Syndrome Association of Northern Virginia’s Buddy Walk. The Buddy Walk is a national event to promote acceptance and inclusion of people with Down syndrome. It also raises money for the National Down Syndrome Society. It’s a great cause, and a great event, and we would have never known about it if not for Signing Time.
We went to the Buddy Walk because Rachel from Signing Time was going to be there. Several families on the Signing Time Forums created a team, raised money (over $1000!) and met at the walk to show our support for Signing Time, Down Syndrome, and to meet Rachel.
And meet her we did. Unlike many celebrities, Rachel was wonderful. Immediately upon her arrival, she was on the ground, talking and signing with the kids, hugging them, and showing that she genuinely cared for them, even having just met them 5 minutes previous. She didn’t just stand for the obligatory photographs with each child. She walked with us for the entirety of the Walk (all ¼ mile of it!) and held Noah’s hand (and another child’s) the entire time. She tolerated the endless questions from her groupies (most of whom were 2 and 3) with more patience than I can muster just with Noah.
And after the Walk, she performed – two half hour performances where she sang many of the wonderful songs from Signing Time. That was amazing. The excitement of meeting Rachel, for Noah at least, was second only to the excitement of watching her sing. As a mother, it was so wonderful to watch. Noah was entranced. He watched, he danced, he signed, and he sang. He even got to come on stage and sign “sing” during “I’m Really Good” (though the excitement got to him and he decided instead to jump the entire time rather than sign).
I haven’t met a lot of celebrities, or even pseudo-celebrities, but Rachel was the warmest, most open person I’ve ever met. As one of my friends commented, we don’t just have one picture of Noah and Rachel, we have over 20 pictures of Noah and Rachel. She is amazingly warm and caring, and does so much for the people whose lives she touches, even without ever meeting them. It makes me even more glad we’ve opened our home to her (at least the dvd version of her).
Emschwar
Ahhhhh…Noah’s had his first brush with fame! So sweet. Glad to read that it was such a good experience for y’all!
maggieb