The days can be emotionally, physically, and mentally challenging for both of us. Some days it seems like the skills we’ve worked on for months and months and months and years will disappear or never happen or long be forgotten. But then there is a moment and everything comes together. Owen’s memory is incredibly long. When he was a toddler I would pick him up, hug him with his arms and legs wrapped around me, and then I would count to ten, squeezing him as I was counting to give him sensory input. We would repeat the process numerous times before moving onto another exercise. We had not done it in years, at least not this version. I do more joint compressions and other sensory input now. I walked into the living room and he stood up, got up on his stool, and immediately hugged me. He doesn’t do this a lot so I hugged back and waited to see what he did. He hugged me harder and said, “one two free”. It took me a moment, but then I realized he wanted compressions for his body. I stood there holding Owen in my arms doing the compressions that he craved, counting to ten, and thankful he could tell me what he wanted. He can’t always express what he wants and his vocabulary doesn’t always reflect what he is trying to say. That’s always been one of the hard things for me. I say to him all the time “use your words”. I prayed that he would find his voice and be able to tell me his emotions and likes. It was important to me to keep encouraging him to use his words because I want him to be able to tell me if he ever isn’t feeling well or if there is some other kind of problem. There’s a lump in my throat, thinking of all the tears I’ve cried praying for his words to come. Owen was on a gluten and dairy free diet for years and I feel like that is one of the reasons he was able to find his voice. I think the dairy was a big part of it for him, but I’m glad I made the decision to do both. Every day we are faced with challenges, but as I stood there and held Owen, giving him the compressions he wanted, I realized that yesterday does matter because we grew, we learned, and it’s made us who we are today. I’m thankful that he was able to express what he wanted and that moment was years in the making. Never give up. Miracles happen every day and I know this because I was hugging mine. Make today matter. Smiles to all and donut daze!
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