Anyway, I follow a blog called Under the Sycamore. Not sure if anyone of you do as well. But, just recently Ashley and her husband added a new little one to their family of 6. Ashley calls her Little One. She's from China. She's SO cute! She also has a cleft palette. Ashley has written quite a bit about the whole process of adoption and the projects she supports for other children that have cleft palettes. But yesterday she posted about her experience with other people out in public- people staring, pointing, whispering. I instantly thought of my friend, Andrea. She has a prosthetic leg.
She's beautiful. When these photos were taken, we were in LA.
We went to Disneyland for a couple of days and she was such a trooper. Her prosthesis is all the way up to her hip so she gets tired after a while because walking takes a lot of effort. But she didn't complain. Her twin sister, Amanda, and I were more concerned with her than she was. For me, it was my first time going out into such a public and crowded place with Andrea. A lot of people stared. I got a little angry. But, honestly, because I'm so used to Andrea's "walk" it took me a while to even notice that people were staring. Then I did and I wanted to yell at them. But I refrained because Andrea didn't even seem to notice. I asked Amanda about it, and she said they've gotten used to it. Andrea's had the prosthesis since she was a baby.
It's funny how self-conscious I get about the scar on my throat sometimes- from my thyroid surgery. But when I ask people if it's really obvious, no one even knows it's there. I think sometimes people are staring at it when they're talking to me, but no one is. And then there are people like Andrea or Ashley's Little One that are born with deformities and the like, and they are just used to it- and don't even notice stares and whispers.
I think that's confidence- when you don't notice anyone else around you talking about you or staring at you.
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