Take it, or leave it.....

Take a look at this face!

Today, this little boy has been discriminated against by Mt. Ararat Baptist Church for the last time! I think that I can say that we gave them plenty of chances to do the right thing and do right by our son, but they blew it. I guess I'll start at the beginning and try not to get so mad that this ends up turning into a rant and rave fest. It started 2 weeks ago when we printed off Haiden's name tag for his class. I don't know how many churches do it like this, but this one you are required to check in your children and out prints 2 tags. One goes on the kid, and one stays with the parent so when you go to pick yours us, you show the volunteer and they check to make sure your numbers match. That way they an ensure that nobody is trying to run off with your child. Anyway, we printed off Haiden's and Noah's. I quickly scanned over the names so we could slap them on their backs and throw them in the room and run to make service late as always. Soooooo...I scanned the tag to see who's was who's and the 2 words Down and syndrome popped out. The name tag read....

Haiden House
Down syndrome

I would not lie about something like that! Shocked, then pissed, then sad, then ready to rip that little section off. Those were the emotions that I first felt. Of course our blood was boiling but we weren't about to deal with the ignorant lady we had dealt with the first week. So we decided to wait until after service, get home, and then email or call the woman in charge of the children's ministry. We called and email and got no response. I did get an auto email saying she was out of town until the 16th so I figured I could wait it out. So the following weekend we were out of town so we missed church. I won't even go on about how I had to make sure and call Haiden's buddy that the church set him up with to let her know our plans and that we were not going to be at church. Just what I want to do. Check in with a 16 year old! Just one more layer, one more thing that we have to do because we can't just go to church and drop both of our kids off. We have to line everything up and make sure all involved are able to do their part. Then today came...of course filled with anxiety because we knew that those 2 words were on our baby's name tag. They mine as well be big, flashing, neon arrows pointing to his back. I printed off the name tag and did a quick scan to see if his medical diagnosis was still on it. It was! We politely asked one of the ladies standing there is they could get on their computer and remove it. After all, they were literally putting a label on our child that we have been working so hard to steer clear of. Guess what, she didn't know so she had to go ask someone else. Then came loud mouth man into the picture. We asked him the same question and he acted like this was going to be a huge problem and speaking at a volume that was not quite the indoor voice everyone else was using. Charlie asked him if he could get on the computer and remove it. He said no because everyone there were volunteers and they needed to be prepared in case something happened. We told him that there was nothing to prepare for. He had Down syndrome, not epilepsy or a deadly peanut allergy. He only has a runny nose because he needs his tubes replaced! Charlie then tried with the medical diagnosis and how you can't just put it out there for everyone to read and he said it had nothing to do with confidentiality. WTF?!?! So of course I just had to tell him that is was inappropriate and then Charlie asked me to go drop off Noah. I know that he was wanting me to leave so I didn't hit him or start getting loud. I haven't really got that calm thing down when someone is dissing my baby! Apparently, Charlie had to finally tell him to shut his mouth so he could talk. But here is how it ended with that guy. He says this to Charlie....

"I don't really want to tell you take it or leave it but....."

Charlie scooped up Haiden ready to "leave it" when another lady walked up and asked what the problem was. He asked her if she could take it off and she said "sure". It will be off next week. To bad we won't be there next week. If that ignorant ass could have handled himself better than I think maybe we would go again. I know that change doesn't happen overnight but they have to have more than one willing person in that church!

So, when is enough, enough? I know last time I wrote about this I was throwing around the idea of wanting to stick it out to educate and thinking exposure would help. Clearly I was wrong. I don't think that I should use my son to educate any longer. I just want him to go where he is loved but more importantly where he doesn't stick out like a sore thumb with a name tag that says Down syndrome on it. Just a name tag that says Haiden House! To much to ask, I don't think so.