This is my youngest daughter Lana. She is 41 years old and is multiple handicapped. We are very fortunate in having a workshop that she goes to about six hours a day during the week.

She is usually a happy person and has a big smile on her face. She can't talk, but has her own way of letting you know what she wants. And even though she doesn't speak words, she can get very vocal. She loves going to the mall. She doesn't walk too well so we take her wheel chair and she has a ball. She hollers a lot and this is her way of expressing her joy at being out. About the only problem we have when we take her out is she want to grab and hug everybody, and young children don't really know what to make of her. But this is her personality as she has never know anything but love.

She has two older brothers and a sister and to them, she has always been the special one in the family. When she was young, we were told that we would have to correct her just as we did the older children when they did something wrong. We usually did this by swatting her hand(not hard),just to let her know that this was not acceptable. Our other children didn't like this at all and we had to explain to them that she had to learn right from wrong just like everybody else. They finally learned to accept this though they still didn't like it.

My husband and I both feel like God gave us this special angel for a reason. She will always be at home with us and has taught us many things that we wouldn't have known otherwise. Patience being one of the main ones. So we look at her as a blessing.