Minutes of Joy – Cake and Humor
On Mondays, I take a few minutes to write the things that I am thankful for. I say a few minutes, but maybe that’s just an ideal. (It’s easily can add a few hours to fix all of my typos and round-up pictures!) I make an effort to do this daily, but on Mondays I share! This project has been a HUGE blessing to me! I’m not sure that there’s a better way to start the week!
The gift of a home-made birthday, just us
Eggs cracked all over the floor. 8 of them?
M actually helping with the cleanup…and the idea that these helping hands will get bigger…and that she gets to learn from these experiences
A day spent making a cake. A. Day. A day where I could slow down and prioritize something simple…something that meant EACH kid stirring (a 2 man helping job for B)
Licked spatulas and bowls
Cake icing smeared all over happy faces
A sink full of dishes
B picking the recipe by staring it down on pinterest
Family time to soak up the gift that we each are to each other
Handmade cards with scattered glitter, stickers, illegible words and unmistakable love
The intricate almost-paisley pattern in the water-stained ceiling above me. (I will get to calling someone about it eventually!)
The girls goofing around with B.
B laughing with and at them more every day.
New friends, precious new friends for B and all of us
Humor with special needs is often slow building. It’s the same kind of humor that makes for the best of comedies, where it all comes together in a way that has you in stitches in the end.
In a moment when B was pouting I told him he’d have to have a time-out if he continued. M said “You wouldn’t!” I said I would. In the moments or minutes that followed, Blue flashed a worried expression to his nurse and made his way across the room toward her in his gait trainer. It took us a moment to put all the pieces together and see where he was going and then we all fell into laughter. This wouldn’t be anything remarkable with the girls…but getting to see Blue play out a typical child response to discipline is a gift to behold!
The other moment of joy this week involved tears…complicated tears. We took the kids to one of the summer $1 shows. I debated going, because I didn’t really want to watch a show that could upset Blue…or me. The show was A Dolphin Tale. It deals with disability of a dolphin, and also an injured solider. But we didn’t have much else to do and needed to get out of the house. Priceless moments came in this outing. We were going to be late, so I called ahead to make sure there would be enough handicapped seating for the 5 of us. When we arrived they wouldn’t even take our money, but showed us into our own theater. So gift #700something there was the theater to ourselves, then the red-carpet treatment for specialneeds which is such a nice exception to, averted eyes, nervous glances and sorry-we-can’t-do-thats,
then the big gift….
In the film there comes a point when all is lost and they are going to have to close up shop – put the Dolphin down.
In this moment, a Mom rolls into the parking lot and begs to see the dolphin, explaining that they’d driven through the night to see him. He’s not famous by any means, a maimed dolphin at a small animal hospital and we all are to wonder what the draw was for her.
Like a solider that sees a shooter out of the corner of his eyes, I spotted it – the van logo. Was I ready for what I thought was about to happen??!! But I didn’t quite have time to process is it before the mom opened the ramp-van to reveal her girl…her girl in a wheelchair. I’m not sure I even saw the little girl before my eyes darted over to B, having no idea what his reaction would be. How was he handling it??? He was nearly JUMPING out of his chair and squealing with delight!
I have no power to explain how deeply touching this all was except to say that I fought of tears for the next several scenes. Gift #4 in that theater that day was rolling out after the movie. In the theater of our own we hadn’t seen the other movie goers, but as we all filtered out, the gift kept coming. Child after child in wheelchair, the one with a nurse, the blind man with a family member. We were in the best of company, people with invisible and indescribable gifts, gifts that are immeasurable once you get close enough to see – and my boy was so happy for it!!!
Other events that day led me to give thanks for the wheelchairs and endless straps and buckles that we deal with, and for the concept of “ministering our of weakness” and much more….but I’ll keep chewing on all of that and tuck it away for another post.
John 3:30
He must become greater; I must become less.”
a Rearranged Life 
Love love love this!!! To see B maturing and you all recognizing it and taking the time to see it…it is a treasure not all families unearth, trust me..
Btw, the hospital is where I grew up and the dolphin is still there… 🙂
Dang it. You made me cry. Love you. Love that boy.