This is our daughter Olivese. She is a completely healthy 4 month old baby. She can grab things and loves to lie on her tummy with her head high. Still she looks different. And it amazes me what that does to people. Being different is not really allowed, or at least questioned. 

When we are visiting new places or she meets people for the first time we get so many questions. What's with her eye, what happened, what's THAT? It's the first thing people see and it can't go without questioning. Apparently. I respect those questions because humans are curious by nature and we like to investigate. But there's also a percentage of people that jumps to conclusions: Did she scratch herself? Did she hurt herself or the worst one, did you hit her? This last one truly amazes me. Why would a new mom hit her 4 month old..Ever. 

And although I respect the curious questions this phenomenon to me is so typical of people in general that I thought it needed a blog. Because what this represents is the fact that: she looks different so she is different so we jump to conclusions to understand the difference. And although this is understandable I would like to remind all of you that you never know what is behind the difference that you see. 

Olivese has a hemangioma and in the beginning it grew rapidly. She is taking heavy heart medication to stop the growth. The first 2,5 months it kept growing. Up to a point were we were so stressed I thought it grew by the second and kept wondering what that would do to her brain development. Finally it's under control and the stress has come down, but still we need to give our little cute baby-girl heavy medication that elderly get for heart problems. Just imagine for a second how that must feel. 

I felt obligated to share this to remind you that you never know what battle someone is fighting and that when someone looks different we sometimes have to fight our instincts and assumptions because we might just hurt someone by stating that they are different. That's what this is. Just a reminder: be kind and embrace difference. And if you are curious ask great questions and don't jump to conclusions that might hurt more than you think. 

And for us? I hope that even if the hemangioma doesn't disappear (which it normally does) she will never forget to hold her head high even when she doesn't lie on her tummy like that anymore and realizes she is gorgeous the way she is.