Special Blessings: Christmas Party

It’s that time again for a reunion with our friends with limb differences like Bella’s.  We love being in the company of this group.  Everyone is super cool.  I have always thought that people with a limb difference were given something extra when it comes to wit, wisdom, spunk, and sass.  But, of course, I could be just biased.  Everyone’s limb differences at the party were unique in their appearance (some are shorter, some are longer, some have five short fingers or one long finger or none at all) and how they were acquired (some were congenital – this is the majority, and some were lost traumatically).  But they all knew what it is like to have just one full hand, and perhaps more importantly, what it is like to have one shorter one.  The younger kids were able to see how the older ones do things and learn from their modeling, but also perhaps more importantly, from their strong sense of self-confidence and ability.

This get-together had a smaller turnout than usual, but that didn’t make for any less fun.  The kids played baseball, ate pizza, sat on Santa’s lap, and even got a couple gifts from the guy in red.

Everyone except Ari visited with Santa.  She was terrified (like large animal terrified circa 2010).  Not being discouraged by her apparent horror, Santa approached her after the party and offered her a candy cane.  You could literally see her change her mind about him.  After very cautiously taking the candy cane from him, she happily waved goodbye and yelled “ba baaa!” at him.

Bella was so shy that she was speechless and couldn’t even tell Santa what she wanted for Christmas.  She believed that he was the real deal, and she could not stand that kind of pressure.

Gabe rose to the occasion and made sure that Santa knew exactly what Bey Wheels were.  He left no room for error after his lengthy description, complete with hand movements depicting the toy’s motion patterns.

Liam played with and stared intently at the beard.  It was real.  Not from Party City.  But a beard-pulling Liam made skinny Santa more than a tad nervous.

I was digging through Santa’s bag for the perfect stuffed animal (I was asked to do so, thankyouverymuch), when I came across this gem.  What I found was the much younger and spryer version of Biggidy Bear (Gabe’s most beloved lovey since babyhood).  Gabe was over the moon with excitement at now having two of the same bear.  We left it up to him, but planted the suggestion that he give it to his baby brother, because what could be more true to the real spirit of Christmas than this act of selfless generosity.  At first, he told us that he would give this new bear (named Higgidy) to Liam when Liam asked him for it (using words) or took it from him on his own.  He eventually came around on his own, however, when he saw Liam cuddle Higgidy and rub him all over his face tenderly.  We’re so proud of our sweet boy, Gabriel.

It’s a Circus in Here

My parents gave us the great idea to go to the circus.  Jake and I both have fond memories from the circus when we were kids, so we considered it… but once we found out that this circus benefitted Shriner’s Hospital, we were sold.  Shriners Hospitals for Children is a network of 22 non-profit hospitals across North America. Children with orthopedic conditions, burns, spinal cord injuries, and cleft lip and palate are eligible for care and receive all services in a family-centered environment, regardless of the patients’ ability to pay.

It may not have been Cirque du Soleil, but it was well worth the drive up to north Scottsdale.  The kids loved it.  I was even impressed by some things… I mean, there was a bear sitting on a chair, eating chips out of someone’s hand just a few feet away from us.

“Who loves the circus?!”

‘Mom, look at that!’

‘Mommmmm!!!  No, really!  Oh my goodness… LOOK!!!’

“Oh, wow.  You’re right, Ari.  That is nuts!” (pun not intended)… sorry, I just couldn’t help myself, tee hee.

They begged for popcorn and cotton candy.  We got both and were left penniless (What?  It was for a good cause).  They also begged to ride the elephants, take a photo with the bear, with the snake, on the Santa sled with the circus sled dogs, go on the bouncy house obstacle course.  Like I said, we were penniless, so we had to draw the line.  We drew it at cotton candy.

Funny thing is, no one loved the cotton candy.  Gabe said it was too sweet.  Bella said it was too sticky.  Ari made a face like she was getting dust bunnies in her mouth every time she felt the texture on her tongue.  Haha, you don’t know until you try it.  They ate it for the novelty though.

Liam was amazed.  Just kidding, he almost always looks that way :).

Power’s back on

When Ari was just three years old, she was lent a power chair by Southwest Human Development for a year.  It was an awesome learning experience and a very generous thing for them to do for us, but after the year was over, we realized that she were still not far enough along in her mastery for her to qualify for insurance funding for her own chair.  So, with a bit of regret we returned the loaner and that was that.

Fast forward a year.  We were doing our grocery shopping when we were approached by a sweet couple who asked about Ari’s diagnosis and shared that they have a daughter who also has Cerebral Palsy.  A short while into our conversation, they mentioned that their daughter, Becca, had outgrown her power chair and they were wondering if Ari happened to need one.  A power wheelchair out-of-pocket runs upwards of $30K, maybe more, so this is no small gift.  I was stunned with the generosity of this couple, and to be honest, I’m still floored by it whenever I think about it.  They could have sold this, but they decided to give it to a child… my child, who could benefit from it.

I’m going to digress in my story a bit here, because I’m me, and that’s just how I do things :). 

So, this family I’ve been telling you about has become good friends of ours.  Becca’s mom, Lori, is one of the supports I most dearly value in my life as a mom to Ari.  Ari loves Becca too, which is very cool.  This experience also changed my life in another way.  I had, for the longest time, been accumulating old equipment (feeding chairs, standers, gait trainers that didn’t work out, crawlers) that Ari no longer used.  I’m ashamed to say that this is the case.  After acquiring this power chair, I decided to find new homes for all of these valuable pieces with children who could use them and benefit from them.  I offered these items on Craigslist under the “Free” section, and fielded phone calls with moms in tears of gratitude and emails and text messages thanking me for this, even from people who had no use for the items.  I was overwhelmed with wonderful, warm feelings.  I truly did feel rewarded by this small service, and I wished that I had even more opportunities to give.  Not only that, but I, all of a sudden, had people on the phone exchanging stories with me who knew what it was like to live this life and to do this job and to love this child.  For one of the first times in my life as a mom to Ari, I truly felt not alone.  “God bless you,” they said.  If they only knew the blessing it was… the blessing they were to me.

And now, Ari is powering around after school, down the neighborhood sidewalks and through the park.  She loves her newfound mobility and uses the joystick pretty well.  She can go all directions but left, which is strange.  She would rather pull a three-point turn or circle all they way around going right then turn left.  This tells me that she’s not quite ready yet for using a power chair indoors yet.  Left is an important direction.  I wonder a bit if this has anything to do with the side of the brain that was most affected by her injury, but this is just one of my thousands of wonderings.  Also, it should be mentioned that Ari is doing much better with the power chair now than she did when she left off with it a year ago.  Maturity is a great thing.  I’m so happy for this opportunity.  We don’t always win, but this was just one of those times for us.

Can you tell she wants to go faster?  Typical Ari :).

Thanksgiving

I love the meaning of Thanksgiving, I love eating feasting, and I love having family around.  This is a favorite for me. 

We had an awesome Thanksgiving dinner.  Grammy has it perfected; from the perfect fall-of-the-bone turkey to the from scratch caramel apple pies a la mode.  I contributed the stuffing, which is only fair, since I am likely to eat half the batch by myself ;). Grammy put together a really cute service project for the kids to gift bags of needed items to the elderly residents of the assisted living facility.  The kids really enjoyed it.  She also had them make leaves of gratitude for the thankfulness tree.  She is known for coming up with sweet little traditions like this.

In addition to Thanksgiving, we had another reason to celebrate this weekend.  After many years of hard work and high achievements, Rick (Papa) retired from his position as manager of the APS power plant.  We remembered his accomplishments and celebrated his future and his freedom with a big dinner in the upstairs old theater-style banquet hall at Romo’s.  Jake, Ryan, and Ali all said a little something, and the grandkids each made a wish about how Papa should spend his newly acquired free time.  For the record, Gabe wants to go shooting with Papa.  It was great night that I think we will always remember. 

But my favorite part of the whole five days was a simple thing.  Simply the togetherness.  In previous Taylor Thanksgivings, the adults have gotten to enjoy being reunited, but it’s getting really special to sit back and observe the kids spend their entire time caught up in boisterous fun with each other.  With them all being so close in age, it’s like they have built-in best buddies within their own family.  It’s pretty cool.

And we had gorgeous weather this year.  Bonus.

One would think that the grander moments in life would get more attention in photos, but this isn’t true for me.  While I can usually capture some awesome laying around the bed shots on an ordinary weekday morning, I have a really hard time documenting our milestone moments in life, because I’m too busy living them.  So my apologies for zip photos of Thanksgiving Day, including the amazing dinner, zero photos of the kids’ service project (which I didn’t witness firsthand), and zilch photos of Papa’s retirement party.  Instead, feast your eyes on some random moments from the in-between times (which are still loved, to be sure).

In addition to our meals at home, we ate out twice, and we had the restaurants to ourselves on both occasions.  Good thing for that too, because with eleven children and eight adults (we were missing one of Jake’s brothers and one of his sisters and their families), we took up the place. 

Did I mention that Grammy is also a clown?  She goes by the name of Lolli, and all the children adore her (especially Ari). 

Feelings of gratitude are my favorite.  And I have plenty to be thankful for.