When I first introduced  you to our cast of characters, I carelessly left out some key players. Meet Alexis Elizabeth Armstrong our 24 year-old niece. Alexis was born with cerebral palsy. She is the joy of my life.  She is aware that she has a handicap, she must use  walker or wheel chair to move from bed or chair to car to destination and then repeat again.  But she never complains.

and always, always has that dazzling smile.  From the time she could talk, if she tripped or bumped her head getting into the car, she immediately said “I’m Okay don’t worry”. She was born in Wichita  but her parents moved to Utah when she was 12 because there seemed to be more opportunities for people with disabilities  there than Wichita offered. That proved to be true. She was mainstreamed into Wasatch High School where she became the team mascot so her wheel chair cold be on the floor with the cheerleaders. The next year, she decided that she wanted to try out for the Cheer Squad.  Her Dad warned her that it would probably  not be possible for her to do all the cheers. She understood this but was willing to take the chance.Thanks to her perseverance and a very special coach , Alexis was on the squad. They cheered for football,basketball,volley ball etc all over Heber Valley and all the way to Salt Lake City. My brother Dan Armstrong and my wonderful sister-in-law, Rhonda drove her and her wheel chair to every game.

They moved back to Wichita after  her High School was complete.  It was quite a social crash for her and not much for her to do except watch Days of our Life and  every football and basketball game televised. Alexis and I made our mission to get her a LIFE in Wichita.

Not so easy.. Developmentally Disabled Services talked to us but we couldn’t do anything without a Case Manager and the wait for that was somewhere around 7 years for one of the few Case Managers. We checked out the ARC for a few social events but they were not really able to accommodate her accessibility issues with their field trips, and she didn’t feel that the group was the right fit for her.

After a few months we made contact with people from Goodwill Industries. Amber was assigned to be her case worker. We met at Wendy’s for a get to know each other lunch and I was so impressed with the way she treated Alexis as a peer. She would not settle until she found Alexis a job that would challenger her and let her contribute her outlook on life to others. She has been working a few hours a week at Families Together. Last month she was honored at the Goodwill Industries Banquet as their  graduate of the year. Couldn’t be more proud.