Owen slept until after seven and woke up saying “church church it’s church day.” The treasures we are seeking are not always gold. I’m thankful that he has made the connection that church is an important part of our lives. This is a gift to me. The morning was peaceful. Owen was calm. This makes me as calm as I can be when I’m still overthinking the moments of the day I have no control over and not to mention the ones that I do. We got ready for church and he was already talking about the mud he wanted to find. He went through his checklist of who he was hoping to see and what they would be wearing. He wanted them all in blue pants and every time he asked he said, “We’ll have to wait and see.” He followed most of the directions and we got out to the car. It’s wonderful to see him get in the car and put his own seatbelt on. It’s a huge step towards the independence I seek for him. At eleven it’s not a general idea we seek for our kids. But for him, I want to work on skills that will take him through to adulthood. He doesn’t learn skills overnight so these are life skills. Learning how to be safe like putting on a seatbelt is as important as learning math or sentence structure. Some of these skills he doesn’t understand the importance of them so that is part of the challenge that we have to get through to find our victory. On the way to church, I went through our schedule for the week ahead. I told him everything we would be doing. This is not something I normally go over with him because he focuses on every moment and if something doesn’t go according to plan this can derail our whole week and it happened on our way home. I’m trying to get him to understand that he is enjoying doing new and different activities so I want that to continue. Everything we are doing and all the people we are seeing are activities he wants to do. Sharing his schedule may or may not keep us up at night. We are working on visual schedules but they are not something he always wants to look at. The kids were a big part of this week’s service. This time my mind wandered to my brother. He had such a good voice and was often asked to sing in the programs. His voice was as big as his attitude. That sibling rivalry was strong with us. My voice wasn’t as strong as his so I was always a little jealous of him. I know one day Owen will be up there singing. He did good at church but after church, I told him the way we were going home. It didn’t happen because there was an accident. We had to go a different way up the hill and around. I could tell the roads he knew because he would tell me what the bus people told him. He said, “You’re next Owen.” I love that they take such good care of him whatever year this may have been from. Since he never forgets a thing this could have been from several years ago. It was literally like rinse and repeat for the afternoon. He kept repeating about picking him up tomorrow and he couldn’t wait to get in the bath so he could wear the goggles. The night stayed calm except for the couple of times he had things on his mind. He’s ready for tomorrow and can’t wait to get his day started. I’m thankful for his growth. Be inspired by the world around you and be the change you want to see. Smiles to all and donut daze!
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