Last week was just the best! Derek and I visited our friends at Gallatin Rest Home..personally my favorite place in town!! 😍 We mainly visited with staff this time…(we arrived at lunch time…and as any human should know…you never want to interrupt the lunch time at a nursing home unless you’re a damn fool! 🤣 😂 So we visited with the staff whom we love soooo very much! Before we went to Gallatin, we decided that we wanted to bring cookies. So Derek decided on his own, that he would bring his wallet with his own money, and go into the store himself to buy the cookies. We discussed where the best cookies were, and how to find them (damn you Rossauer’s with your iced shortbread cookies with a hint of almond! Good lord!!!). We discussed how many different bills he might need to pay for the cookies. He listened and paid close attention. He did not want any help from me. With a refrigerator full of food at home; I struggled to think of something I needed to buy in the store just to spy on him….wine? No…”let him go!!” I thought in my head. So I watched my sweet and caring 19 year old baby walk into the store alone. Nice people walking to and from; I scanned the parking lot watching to see if any “sketchy” people were walking in…wait…it’s Bozeman…it’s like Mayberry on Steroids, I think we are safe. Most people seem to know Derek, or just enjoy visiting with him anyway…”he’s safe” I tried to reassure myself. After what seemed like a year, he emerged from the store with a bag in his hand (paper bag no less….from a shameful family that has no time to recycle…cut us some slack people! 😐 ) He was so proud, he beamed with a smile you could feel. He opened the car door…(he could probably smell the sweat that had multiplied on my body as I waited for him!!! Ugh…I started to unzip my coat!) “Look mom” and he opened to bag to reveal a treasure of 3 boxes of cookies..exactly as we had discussed! My heart was bursting into little pieces all over the place attaching themselves to all the people in the near vicinity…I wonder if passerby’s could feel the monumental shift, as I celebrated just how capable my sweet boy had become. Any 19 year old could do this, but there are precious few that need more time to develop such simple skills such as this; and once these skills blossom, it’s like another huge weight (from the MANY we carry each day), just lifted like a balloon full of helium soaring to the sky to thank God for these little miracles. Even David, our 13 year old genius/monkey surprised us the other day when he offered to walk in front of Derek near an icy stretch to be sure that Derek didn’t fall. I want to cry every time he offers to help, and reach out and be kind…in the back of my mind, I know he’s working towards XBox, but I’ll take what we can get!!! It has taken many years, wine/Tito’s and meds to get to this point 😉, but I think we are mostly there….somedays not so much, but for the most part…we are ACTUALLY FUNCTIONING, and what more can any good old fashioned stressed out American family with orthopedic problems, amazing careers, and kids with special needs ask for anyway, right? It’s all good…one day at a time. Ahhhhh…you can breathe now.
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