Real life doesn’t abide by our rules.

The Special Olympics was never on my bucket list.

Perhaps as a volunteer, but not as mom.

Last year, I was the mom of a little boy who took part in Special Olympics for the very first time.

Amos, just four years old, in a too big shirt and unkempt yellow hair, laughed and played amongst the cheers of his family.

It was joyful, I hadn’t expected that.

The whole lot of it- Special Olympics, being a special needs parent, a journey that’s been more spectacular than I could have imagined.

The Special Olympics showed me that those rules of mine were nothing when it came to my littlest athlete, the son I never expected.

Today, we learned that $18 million in funding for Special Olympics has been proposed to be eliminated as charter school funds increase by $60 million.

“We are not doing our children any favors when we borrow from their future in order to invest in systems and policies that are not yielding better results,” Betsy DeVos stated.

If only we lived in a world where being a Special Olympic athlete was seen as more than a subpar result.

Amos, the grandest yield I have ever known.