One of Payton's greatest joys was being a Girl Scout.  Select the link below to see her volunteering with her troop and fantastic leader Elfreda Skidmore at the Hoyt Street Shelter.

http://www.providenceoregon.org/video/?view=7edf538d19f9ax480x293
 

Sydney and Payton doing homework in the dining room - having too much fun!  Lots of giggles.

Payton, My Disabled Sister

By Sydney Lake (4th Grade)

Some days my sister feels excited.  Some days she doesn’t feel good.  When I see her smile it makes me feel good inside.  Have you ever wondered a world where you couldn’t talk or walk?  Well that is my sister’s life.

You might be wondering how Payton gets around.  She uses a wheelchair.  Sometimes she gets to drive herself, but other times we push her.  During therapy she has to drive herself.  Are you wondering what therapy is for my sister?  Well almost every weekday she goes to therapy.  Sometimes on Wednesday she gets to go swim.  Usually I go with her.

You might be thinking, “Oh she doesn’t go to school”, but you are wrong, she goes to school and she rides the bus in the morning and afternoon.  I get her off the bus in the afternoon.  I also get to wheel her down.

You might be wondering how she eats.  When she was a baby she drank from a bottle.  She can eat soft foods like pudding, applesauce and yogurt, but she needs more food than that to keep her healthy.  It is hard for her to chew food so she has a tube in her tummy.  She has liquid food you pour through the tube and it goes right into her stomach.  I love to feed her.

Usually, when my sister is sick I have to help her.  She makes me more responsible, helpful and more respectful.  When she is sick she has a harder time getting rid of her cold like you and me.

I love Payton’s smile.  She wouldn’t be herself without her smile.  When my family sees her smile it takes out our blues.  When she goes to therapy her name in sign language is a P going across your mouth to make a smile.  I love my sister and my sister loves me.  I love to play with my sister.  She always likes it when I pick her up from the couch.  I also play doctor.  She is in her wheelchair and I use one of her scarves to make a pretend cast and a ball is on the scarf.  I swing the scarf and she tries to get it.  When it is all the way off I come in to tickle her.  But every time I leave her she always has a smile on her face.

My life wouldn’t be the same without Payton.  She maybe different, but she is still the same to me.  She has taught me responsibility, helping others, to be more respectful and for sure she is going to teach me more.  She came into life and she is going to do it one way or another.