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Today has been a thoughtful day.
I tried to find an outfit that wasn't black.
Today needed to be about color.
I found something-red-it worked, I guess.

Today I'm in Germany.
Tonight, while I sleep, my dearest friends in Virginia will memorialize the most amazing little girl.
I'll be here-dreaming of a place where she can be as loud and as fast as her heart can take.
Her heart...

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Dulce was a former student of mine.
I was her Kindergarten and First Grade teacher at Hunters Woods Elementary School in Reston.

Hunters Woods was a magical place.
I got really, really lucky when Steve hired me.
I felt at once, like I had found "home."
Team Leader was all over the world back then; we owned a house a NC, and the kids and I lived with my parents. I felt unbelievably displaced 99.9% of the time. I felt like I was homeless. Even with 2 potential buildings creating cover for my head-homeless.
Hunters Woods took all that away.
I WAS home when I was at work.
I had peace.
I had presence.
I was home.

Dulce was part of that peace...that presence...that home.

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Dulce was this wonderfully crazy little person who had more questions than a child could EVER possibly be allowed to ask...
She was this bright light of good, a good that all children do possess, but her light was stronger...
She would communicate in any way she possible-not an easy task given the enormity of her disabilities...
But I never saw her as disabled-ever.
She was Dulce.

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She named me "H" first.
Then I evolved into "Harry."
For a minute, we tried to do the real name "Mrs. Harrison" until we all realized that my name was "H" - I was "Harry."
She would said "Harry...COME."
I would go.
She would RUN to the swings or the slides on the playground, laughing, teasing, joking...
I would go.

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Her IEP meetings were parties-oh my stars did we laugh until our faces were wet with tears. Her parents were fabulous, and everything a Gen Ed teacher could want parents to be: suportive, kind, tough, sweet, hysterically funny with wicked senses of humor, reasonable, right.
They were right.
Right for Dulce, right for me, right for Rahn.
They gave us Dulce - 40 hours a week.
Dulce gave us the family that she was denied at birth.
She gave me herself.
She gave me her parents and brothers.
She gave me Rahn.
She gave me Eadie.

She gave me confidence-there isn't a child I'll deny-and a desperate want to know how to do more.
She was "the most inclusive person I know" (so SO true Eadie, and beautifully said)
She lived her life as if each moment were truly her last.
People say that phrase, about living life, but few actually do.
Dulce did. Man, Dulce, did.

She was 10 when she died last week.
Dulce was a former student of mine who came into my life and changed me forever.
Dulce was a former student of mine who became part of my family - part of me.

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I don't have many more.
In the end of this part of her life, it was her beautiful big heart that needed to finally rest...Her heart.
In my mind I believe that for the first time, she heard clearly the amazing grace of G-d, calling to her:
"Dulce. Come."
She did.
Who could blame her?
I can't go now, but I know oh I know, that when the light in my life calls upon me
I WILL see Dulce again.
She will be there,
laughing,
holding out her hand,
pulling me into the second leg of our Amazing Race.

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Dulce was one child in a million.
She cannot ever be replaced.
But she's at peace, and I know how important finding peace is...
even if it means leaving people you love.

Dulce Maria Wahdan
1998-2008



















umarmen und lieben Dulce-
Harry