Shawni Eyre Pothier: I Love Lucy Project... and Lunch

Shawni Eyre Pothier is first and foremost a wife and a mother to six of her favorite people.  Aside from trying to figure out how to bottle her children up and keep them at her side forever, she enjoys photography and writing which has led to publishing her first book co-authored with her mother Linda Eyre titled A Mother's Book of Secrets; they have also recently launched the I Love Lucy Project to help raise funds for research to help fight blindness since her youngest daughter has been diagnosed with a syndrome that causes vision loss.

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At the birth of each of my five babies I was completely euphoric.  I sat in my hospital bed with each of them and gazed deeply into their windows-to-heaven-eyes as my heart swelled up to the size of a watermelon with pure love.  Those babies were my dream come true... the dream I'd been dreaming since before I could talk...the dream to be a Mother.

As I sat there soaking them in and thanking God for these perfect gifts, I dreamed of a life for each of them as full and rewarding as could be.  Of course as mothers it's never part of our dream for our children to have to deal with health issues or trials, for something to go wrong.  I dream of only the good stuff, confidence, friends, marriage and family.

But my big dreams shifted dramatically with the birth of my fifth baby, Lucy.

She politely introduced me to real life.

Not only was she born with an extra toe and a couple of birth marks, she was delayed.

 

Even at three months old she hadn't smiled, despite my most impressive attempts to strain my own smile muscles at her.  She couldn't roll over forever.  She couldn't sit up for much longer than I was comfortable with, and at almost two years-old, she still wasn't walking.

My husband and I worried our hearts out.  What was wrong?  As we struggled through doctor after doctor trying to figure it out, I realized I had been living in a dream world with my first four kids.  Every one of them was right on developmentally.  One week they learned to play peek-a-boo.   The next they learned to give kisses.  Then they started saying words, which were added to one by one, then ten by ten.

This was normal.

This was life.

Lucy qualified for speech therapy, then physical therapy.  She had MRIs and hearing tests that required sedation since she was so darn feisty.  I became best friends with the nurses at the blood lab who helped me hold poor Lucy down endless times to draw blood for various tests ordered by the geneticist.

One winter day last year, we got a call we knew was coming.  Lucy was diagnosed with Bardet-Biedl, a rare syndrome that causes heart and kidney issues, obesity, and most heart-wrenching to us:  blindness.

Everything was claustrophobic; my thoughts swirled.  I worried about my husband who wants to always 'fix' things that go wrong, and here was something he couldn't 'fix'.  I worried about our other kids getting the attention they needed given Lucy's needs.  I worried about all her health issues, the myriad things that could go wrong.

My heart sunk when people started talking to us about the Foundation for the Blind and Braille:  classes for young kids to learn to walk with canes, heart and kidney problems associated with this syndrome, the possibility of diabetes and kidney transplants.

This syndrome was not part of the 'dream' I envisioned for my daughter as I daydreamed in my hospital bed when she was born.  What about all the things I dreamed she'd do?  I went from dreaming big to letting fear seep in.  Would Lucy be able to function in life?  Would she have friends?  Would she depend on us forever?  And what about my dream that she'd someday be a wife and mother?  Even if she did, how could she bear not seeing her husband, seeing her babies?

As I reflect on this past year since Lucy's diagnosis, I have been smacked in the face with the realization that it is through our struggles we grow the most. And that we all have struggles.  We all have dreams that haven't become a reality.

Some struggles are small.  We get a bad haircut, or can't make a decision about which school will be best for our children.  Others struggles loom large, horrible ordeals we can scarcely imagine.  We are chemically depressed, loved ones have been abused or deal with chemical dependence, some husbands are unfaithful.  But ever so gradually our challenges shape us, dreams we hadn't anticipated emerge.

Lucy is a sweet, strong-willed, chubby three year-old who captures the hearts of all who meet her.  Her life is not going in the direction I had hoped for when I cradled her as a newborn, but she is influencing many, giving hope along the way.

We begin with dreams.  Nearly always there are twists and turns.  I'm learning to be flexible, to recognize that when a dream reaches a dead-end, an alternate dream can and will emerge.

As my dream for Lucy shifts, my dream as a Mother has shifted as well.  All the wonderful things I hoped for are still there, but fighting for Lucy and against blindness, especially Lucy's type of blindness which there may be a cure for (provided there is funding), has lit a fire within me.

It is a joy to have something bigger than myself and my family to fight for.

 

If you were moved by Shawni's story -- if you've had a dream die, only to discover a new dream - will you help Shawni raise awareness around blindess?

So as to give each of you a little love for loving Lucy, I have suggested to Shawni and Linda, and they have agreed, albeit reluctantly due to their innate modesty, to invite to lunch one winner and a guest.  To be eligible, you can do one of the following or both:

1)  Post an 'I Love Lucy Project' button on your blog (then leave a comment here that you have done so between now and March 21 -- the first day of Spring);

Grab your button here.

2)  And/or become a fan of I Love Lucy on Facebook by March 21.

You can click to the Facebook page here. 

On March 22, a winner will be randomly selected (you can be eligible twice) using random.org to be a guest of Shawni and Linda for lunch.

If for some reason, you won't be in the West anytime soon, the luncheon would be transferable, and what a gift this would make-- possibly even for Mother's Day.  So many of us would enjoy hearing about their Mother's Secrets firsthand and who of us has not read Richard and Linda Eyre's NY Times-bestselling books on parenting?  What a treat to spend a few minutes chatting about one of the things that matters to us most -- being a great mom!

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What dreams of yours have died?  What dream has risen from the ashes?

Who would you invite to lunch with you, Shawni and Linda?

And what would you talk about?

Comments

[Julie Woolstenhulme]

Who couldn't fall in love with that darling little angel! I would love to help!

[Donna~Blessed Nest]

I posted and became a fan. What an amazing little girl, family and Mom. Praying for their family!

[Madeleine]

I have only recently found Shawni's blog -- and loved reading it. What a vision and, at the same time, what a happy family doing their best to make their way.

Huge applause and cheers for the I Love Lucy dream!

[Beckee]

Button on blog & face book fan ...done. We can all work together to get this going! Moms unite!

[KyleneSouth]

I would hope someone would do something like this for me if I were in the same situation. I started following Shawni's blog after I read her book, "A Mother's Book of Secret's." What an inspiring book and what an inspiring mother/daughter duo.

Some of the "big dreams" I had 10 years ago, have been replaced by other dreams given to me by Someone who sees the "big picture" better than I do. My dreams no longer include a bright lit stage and a microphone but include raising great kids, and instilling in each of them a love for the world around them and an understanding of who they are and who they can become. Sure, I still have little dreams like running a marathon and seeing more of the world but, those "big picture dreams" are the ones I hope to make sure come true.

I put the button on my blog. :)

[KyleneSouth]

And am a facebook fan too!

[H]

Great post...and sweet little girl. In response to the dream dying, it's hard, isn't it? We have all of these "plans", these things that were supposed to happen. My husband was diagnosed with an incurable yet treatable disorder that has changed our life. It seemed so unfair that it happened to a kind & generous person - it seemed so unfair when our dreams were just pretty ordinary - really just regular life stuff. And people around us... their lives went on as normal. It has been a journey, for awhile hope and even faith waned. But we are carrying on. New dreams begin, hope emerges in a different way. The dreams don't die, they are just altered. Praying for long lasting strength to support you and your family.

[Jennifer Rees]

I'm a fan and I posted the button on my blog. She is adorable and deserves a great life!