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 :).
No comments:
Post a Comment