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Shannon is 18 years old and adopted, when we took Shannon into our home to be our Angel Child at the age of 8 years. She had been in various homes and group homes mainly kept in a wheelchair to keep her confined. When we brought her home for the first weekend and put her in the pool, she went completely wild. I said to my wife that I don't believe I can control her, but she calmed down after repeated outings. We thought that by allowing her to walk around in the 3 ft part she would improve her balance. This worked and almost immediately started to improve in her walking skills. If she happened to slip in the water, she would fall to the bottom and just lay there, making no attempt to get up or flail in the water.
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She now swims aided by a Ski Belt with direction, and this allows us to sit by the side of the pool, while she gets her exercise. She can swim a few strokes without her Ski Belt, but quickly loses her attention and lets her feet reach for the bottom, and then the sinking begins. She has been in the Special Olympics Swimming Competition three times, and did very well chasing another swimmer, with a blown up swim ring.
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Shannon only goes so far in almost all she does. She almost self feeds, and if we put the food on the spoon, she will lift it up to her mouth, reaching for our hand to put more food on it. She can almost swim, and almost 100% Potty trained with minimal accidents.
Shannon is warm and loving and has filled our lives with love, she is very special to us.
Art & Dorothea Anderson
Pages provided as a public service by: Harold Anderson
Revised: October 04, 1999.