Embrace: Stories of Humour, Humanness and Hope (Inspired by Madeline Kean‪)‬

Imagine yourself as a child on a swing. When you first discovered the swing, you needed someone to 'push' you so that you could make it 'swing' back and forth. As time went on, you soon realized that it was frustrating to always have to wait for someone to 'push' you so that you could make the swing work. Sitting on a swing is not nearly as much fun as swinging on a swing. What did you do? You learned how to 'pump' the swing so that you could ride it independently whenever the urge came over you. Learning to 'pump' on a swing gave you a tremendous feeling of freedom, independence and satisfaction. You belonged to a special group of people who were able to swing on the playground all by themselves! Freedom. Independence. Satisfaction. Belonging. These are the gifts we work daily to support Madeline in attaining. Madeline is a 20 year-old person who is differently-abled. She has met many ups and downs in her life – each one she has embraced with humour, humanness and hope. EmBraced is a collection of her life stories – 'herstory'. "Give the ones you love, wings to fly, roots to come back and reasons to stay" (Dalai Lama)