Pay it Forward Friday: Take Time to Say Thanks

Yesterday, after dropping Michael off at the VA Hospital for a procedure.  I attempted to make a mad dash out of the hospital to get some errands run while he was waiting for his procedure to begin.

I didn't get out of the parking lot in a hurry, and ordinarily this would have bothered me.  This time, it didn't.

Walking right down the middle of the aisle, about 25 feet in front of me was a WWII Veteran.  Instead of getting irritated and honking my horn, I watched him walk.  He had a limp, either from a wound received in combat or a life well lived, I'll never know.  I watched him look for his car, and I almost started to get impatient.  Then I watched him do something amazing.

Each time a Veteran walked past him he would stop and salute.  The younger Veteran would return the salute and both men would continue walking.  He stopped four times to pay honor to his fellow comrades; by the time he found his car and I went on my way, I was in tears.

I started to wonder how many of us have stopped to say, "Thank You!"  How many of us take the time to honor our Veterans, or to remember their sacrifice.

I certainly don't do it enough, and there is no shortage of Veterans in my life.

I started when I picked Michael up from the hospital yesterday afternoon.

I gave him a big hug, a kiss, and a "Thank you!"

It's October 11th

This is the follow-up to When It's Not Just a Stage and "Mom!" "What?" So if you haven't read those yet, go read them now.  We'll wait for you!

We've been waiting for this day, and this appointment since July.  He was looking forward to it too, and has been praying for the doctor to help him not to walk silly anymore.

We don't know anymore than we knew when we walked in this morning, but we at least have a direction.

Robert can't seem to control his right leg.  He can hop up and down on his left foot all day long, but couldn't do it once on his right foot.  He's right hand and eye dominant so this was a cause for concern.  When he walks, he drifts to the right and sometimes bounces into things.  Even when she gave him a line to walk, he would drift right off the line to the right.  He also has some trouble controlling his left hand, which may or may not be related to the problem with his right leg.  She ordered an MRI and an EEG to rule out a neurological cause.  If it shows nothing, he'll do physical therapy to strengthen his leg and learn to control it.

She was more concerned, as are we, about his lack of social development.  She suspects Aspergers and has ordered a consult with a specialist.

Meanwhile, we have to give him some help.  When we sit at a table, we have to make sure there's no one across from him.  When we walk through a parking lot or in a store, we have to hold his hand to keep him from running into things.

We also get to remind him that he is the sweetest and best behaved little boy ever and that we love him just exactly the way he is.

An evening with my daughter...

It has finally happened!  Bailey, my nine year old, has finally gotten too big for her britches.

Well, not really!

I got home from work the other day and Bailey stopped me just inside the door.  "Mom, we need to talk!"  I stopped and listened, waiting for some silliness that I was sure she was about to share with me.  I was shocked when she said, "We don't spend enough time together!  We need a girl's night!"

I'm pretty over extended right now.  Between getting Robert some help, getting ready for Haiti, and a hundred other things, I really haven't made time for her.  I told her I was working at the church one night this week and she could go with me.  She was so excited, and told me every day that she couldn't wait for our night together.

We're getting the new set ready and it's going to be awesome!  It's going to be even more awesome knowing how much fun Bailey and I had helping.  It was so awesome to reconnect with her.

In the new Pastor stool.
Pretending to be our Pastor.

With the ball, that used to be the stripe

Here are some things I learned about my daughter tonight:

• She talks, a lot.  She doesn't know what a stranger is, and feels as comfortable in a group of adults as she does in a room full of her peers.
• She's a problem solver.  We were removing contact paper off a hard wood floor and she kept trying to find the "best" way to do it.
• She's competitive, she only wanted to find the "best" way to remove the sticky so that she could win a contest with her mom.  A contest she clearly won, by the way.
• She's bossy!  I've seen her boss her brothers around, but never a group of adult women.  I had to remind her several times that she was to listen and do what she was told.
• She's a born volunteer.  Every time the person running things would say, "OK, we need to..."  Bailey would say, "I can do that!"
• She isn't a complainer, which honestly surprised me since both of her parents are.
• She's growing up WAY too fast!

Who loves you the most?

I don't think I've shared a cute story about Mac yet, so here goes!

Mac is cuteness personified!  He is sweet, funny and adorable but he has a fierce independent streak and isn't afraid to speak his mind.

This morning Junior, his dog, got out of the fence as soon as we let him out to go to the bathroom.  We realized it about ten minutes later when we went to let him back in.  My husband and I started walking the neighborhood at 7:20 this morning, calling him and hoping we'd see his bouncy little self going up and down the road.  

Junior making sure no one steals Mac's Blankie

As I passed back by our front door, a cute and worried little boy ran out to help me.  He said, "I want to help find Junior, I know he'll come if I call his name!"  We walked for a little while, talking about where he could be.  I tried to both reassure him and prepare him in case we couldn't find Junior.  He cried as he said, "If we can't find him, I'll put signs up everywhere that say, 'Wost Dog!' and then someone will call you."

We walked the neighborhood one more time and then headed back to the house.  When we got to our front yard, Mac yelled, "JUNIOR!" one last time!  He bounded toward Mac happy to see him as he always is.

Mac and I lay down together for a nap shortly after we got Junior home.  I always ask him, "Who's the best little boy in the whole world?" and he says, "Me!"  Then I ask, "Who loves you the most?" and today he said, "YOU...and Junior!"