While I sat in the Righetti's nicely furnished home, I watched Natalee ...

The day the triplets were
born, the Righetti family had
obstacles to face. When they were
born, Dave and Kandice were told
that their youngest, Natalee, had
cerebral palsy. Statistics have shown
that it’s not uncommon for triplets
to come with birth defects. Kandice
tells me now that having kids with
special needs is a whole other realm
of parenting. Her experience as a
mother was completely different
from most mothers. She had the
responsibility of loading the kids in
the car, taking them to the doctors
or physicians, taking them home,
unloading them. This was a constant
routine that she says was entirely
worth it. Even though it was a
different style of parenting, Kandice
says it’s much more rewarding. The
little accomplishments seem so
much more monumental. Natalee
had to visit physical therapists for
her condition. When I asked her
how she felt about it, she responded,
“ I never really liked it. It was
fun when I was younger but still
hard and scary”. She explained that
as a child, she had to climb a ladder;
but, as she grew up, the activities
became more challenging and
less “fun”. All her life, though,
Natalee had a passion for sports.
She believes this was mostly due
to her father’s career. When I
asked how her father had influenced
her opinion on sports, she
said to me, “Him being in baseball
made me love it so much.
I see his passion in the game
and how much he works and it
inspires me.” While she was able
to teach herself a lot of tricks in
sports, she still faced challenges.
When she was in her softball
phase, she had to learn how to
catch and throw with the same
hand. She ended up acquiring
this skill, but that doesn’t mean
it was easy. In high school, she
became interested in volleyball.
At one point, however, it became
too difficult and decided to quit.
This was one of the most disappointing
times in her life. She
never gave up on anything, but
she had a weak moment and let
go of a challenge. According to
Psychology Today, the element
of initiative is usually
acquired during the adolescence
period. Based on their
environment, the child will
obtain lots of motivation to
keep trying hard. Fortunately,
Natalee was raised in these
conditions. “I’ve always been
pretty positive. I was less
positive with my challenge
with volleyball. That was
my lowest point. But then, I
read this book called Purpose
Driven Life. It really opened
my understanding of my disability
and purpose. I came
to accept everything that
happened. There’s more
that I could be good at. Sophomore
year was hardest because of not
playing volleyball.” She decided
to re-join the athletic field, and
since then has worked very hard to
remain optimistic and contribute to
the disabilities community.
I had the privilege of joining
Natalee at a National Charity
League event. They asked Natalee
to give a speech on her book. I
met up with her in Woodside and
we walked into this beautiful old
home. She was in there, nervous.
She, her sister, Nicolette, and her
mother were dressed up in lovely
sun-dresses. I knew Natalee cherished
their presence during her
time of her nervousness because
of how she described their relationship
earlier. She had explained
to me before that Nicolette and
she were huge parts of each other’s
lives. Nicolette being hearing
impaired has faced obstacles just
like Natalee. She told me, “Having
disabilities has really connected us.