Back to reality

Every day I wake up and look at this face, a face of bravery, happiness, determination, intelligence, creativity and love.  Most days I look up to him and wonder how he does it.  How does he wake up smiling everyday knowing the challenges he will face?  How does he wake up everyday determined to prove people wrong?  How does he wake up everyday ready to work 10 times harder than the rest of us to do everyday things?  How does he come up with the most creative ways to make things that are difficult for him easier?  How is he so BRAVE?  

This morning I woke up extra early so I could hook Cam up to boost before school.  I carry him to our bed, hook him up and he promptly falls back to sleep.  I continue getting ready all the while worrying about how the day will go.  I pack our lunches, make coffee and go back up to disconnect him and get dressed for school.  He comes downstairs with a smile on his face ready for his first day back.  I am smiling too, but totally freaking out inside!  I say goodbye and begin my commute to work.  The plan is for Kev to go in and make sure he can use the restroom, which is the most challenging part of his day because he has to transfer from his chair all by himself.  As I drive I am trying to talk myself down from the cliff and just keep reminding myself how excited Cam was to be going back to school and that is a blessing.  At 8:58 I get the call.............things did not go as planned.  Immediately my heart hurts for Cam, he must be so upset.  My mind is racing! What do we do now?????  What if he can't ever do it again?  How will we make this work?  Will he have to change schools?  How will he handle this?  Then I get it together, I pull up this picture on my phone and think of all the things I listed in the beginning of this post.  Knowing that Cam will push through with all of our support and love I sucked it up, went to work and got caught up.  Meanwhile Kev and Cam headed home and began to relax themselves.  They started working on some ideas for making transitioning easier and came up with a great way to make things work.  We've practiced a few times tonight and Cam is ready to go back tomorrow and try again and I have no doubt that he will do it!

I spend a lot of time in the car on my commute to and from Indiana for work and use this time to gather my thoughts, cope with situations and reflect on the days past and put my energies in the days to come.  I have learned so much from Cam in the last 9, almost 10, years that I cannot begin to put it all in here, or into words for that matter.  I hope for those of you who don't have the pleasure of knowing Cam as well as others that I can continue to share pieces of him so you too can get to know his strength and use it to push yourself through anything you encounter.  He has faced more challenges in 9 years than most people do in a lifetime, yet he still wakes up with a smile on his face ready for whatever the day brings! 

Smile :) 

Challenges often make us realize that we have more courage than we think and that one person CAN make a difference in the world ... even if it's the world of one other person.
— Chelle Thompson, Editor of Inspiration Line