Today is twenty days into my writing challenge -- please if you are joining me today for the first time, I would love for you to click over and read our stories from the beginning. I'm sharing old emails where I unloaded, bragged and grieved from my heart with my closest friend as a new Mama to triplets. I am looking at what counted so much back then and seeing if it is really and truly what counts today. And oh dear ones, if you are still with me after these TWENTY days I would seriously love to hug your neck!
I've most recently been talking about my dear Benjamin and his first orthopedic surgery. The decision was such a challenge, the recovery seemed gruesome in my head....but I love remembering how my boy handled it:
July 20, 2000 -- God is so good! Benjamin is home and doing so very well! He sailed through the surgery and immediately upon exiting recovery started chatting and flirting with his nurses and didn't stop!! You know what a Star Wars fan Daddy is....well, Benjamin looked at Wade in the hospital yesterday and said, 'Hey Daddy, my cast looks like a Pod-Racer!' And so this little booger is delighted to be in a blue Pod-Racer!!"
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| Arthur was visiting the library the day after Benjamin left the hospital -- we HAD to go meet him!! |
We can always count on Benjamin to put things right into perspective for us. I had dreaded that cast. Thought he would hate it. Thought he would be in pain from it and miserable.
He thought it looked like a pod-racer. And suddenly all was well with the world.
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| Arthur was Benjamin's favorite -- and quite honestly the only way I had time to shower most days!! |
And as I analyze the things that really count -- I know I keep coming right back to this: My young-mama fears during those early years were fueled by my own limited paradigms. I based my hopes for Benjamin as well as my fears for Benjamin on my life experiences. And frankly those are life experiences limited to a fully-able body.
Yes, I said limited. My life experiences shape my ideals for Benjamin's future and they stem from a very limited life-view of achieving things in one way, through one means. But here is the thing, Benjamin has more capacity to dream than I have ever had. He has more capacity to envision a bright amazing future. He does not function under the same limited, close-minded paradigms of his mother. Thank you, God!
Benjamin is also not limited to the fears that I almost inflicted on him. I am so thankful that I realized at a very early young-mama stage to let him lead the way. A pod-racer. He thought his horrible, constricting, pain-inflicting cast looked like a pod-racer and he was ready to fly!
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| Benjamin, his blue pod-racer, his light saber and his Uncle Talley! |
Oh y'all, counting what counts: Benjamin's wheelchair is not a constraint that holds him back. No, as I have said before, his wheelchair is merely the foundation from which he will reach for the stars. He is more than a mover and a shaker -- he is a rocker and a ROLLER! And I can not wait to see where his imagination takes him!
That's what counts.
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