So Small

There was a really nice woman in line behind me at Wal-Mart today.  She was talking with Matthew, complementing his big blue eyes and long eye lashes, and waving to him.  I always wonder if people notice that Matthew isn't typical and my guess is she had no idea.  She was making small talk and she started to guess Matthew's age.

Her: "Is he 7 months?"
Me: "He's one" (I figured I'd just round down.)
Her:  "Why goodness, he's so small!"
Me:  uncomfortable silence with slight grin.

I know she didn't mean anything by it and was just trying to be nice and make small talk, but it felt pretty awful.  We know that Matthew is small. He struggled the first 7 months of his life to just survive with his heart that was working way too hard. That alone would make him smaller than the typical kid. Adding into the mix (1) his short mother, (2) his rare chromosome duplication which is known to cause growth retardation and (3) the fact that he's had a surgery every other month for the last 10 months, it isn't surprising he's not anywhere near the typical growth curve.  We are just thankful that he's here with us, no matter his size.  These are things that strangers don't know and don't appreciate when they see our sweet baby Matthew.  Next time I think I'll just say "Yep, it's the way God made him."