My Butterfly Baby is my daughter. From the day she was born, she faced medical issues that scared the pants off me. We tortured her with tests, filled her body with drugs, and opened her up to poke some more. All the while, she just smiled. She never complained. On top of multiple medical problems, she had trouble walking and talking, so we got her all the help we could find, most of which we couldn't afford. She worked harder than I ever would have asked her to. She never stopped trying. All medical experts now are astonished at what she's accomplished.
Her biggest help came from Cindy Peters, Denise Freeman, and Kim Tyler at The Mariposa School. I overheard a teacher at Mariposa once describe my daughter as a Butterfly Baby, recognizing that the school's name, Mariposa, is Spanish for butterfly. To anyone who has ever walked into the school, it is easy to visualize each child coming out of their own dark, isolated cocoon. I personally have witnessed children transform before my eyes, each of them a Butterfly Baby in my book.
Well, my daughter's older now, no longer a baby, but she'll always be a Butterfly Baby to me. She continues to float through her life as a free spirit and as graceful as a butterfly. Lucky for me, I get to go on her ride.
