Gift of Love

First, my apologies for not blogging last week aside from my sketch war entry. Life got the better of me and took me out of the game for a bit. I'm back and putting life back in it's place.

I had a proud mommy experience last Friday. My oldest has been taking violin at school all year, he's in 1st grade and will be 7 this coming Friday. My son was also diagnosed with autism when he was 17 months old. He goes to a private school and is in a blended classroom of children in 1st-3rd grades. They had their end of the year concert last Friday at this new performing arts center.

So I'm in this auditorium, watching for my son. They call up his group and he's the first one on the stage. Right away he peers over the edge of the stage into the orchestra pit and the teacher is still on the microphone addressing the parents and he has to stop speaking to address my son and direct him back to the center of the stage. Then my son starts enthusiastically waving to try to locate me in the crowd. He didn't see me of course, because the house lights were down. So he tried again, this time putting his violin on the stage and putting his hands up to his eyes like binoculars. When that didn't work, he picked up his violin again and this time waved his bow in the air. I was rolling in my seat, shaking with laughter. Got to give the kid points for being persistent.

Right about then the teacher was calling for attention and he got his little violin in place and waited and started playing right in time with the other kids. They played this song called "Song of the Desert" I think it was just 6 notes that they repeated several times. And, it was deliciously awful. I was so proud. The squeaking, the chords that didn't appear in the written music, but were present in the space, it was all perfect.

As I watched my son, I just wanted to take a photo and place my middle finger in it and send it to every doctor who said my son wouldn't do anything. No talking, special ed all the way up, life of having to be cared for. HA. They said that to the wrong mom. I worked 5 1/2 years for that brief moment on Friday. Here's my son, in a private school with typical kids, doing 3rd grade work in the 1st grade, on stage with all the sensory input around him (the lights, the people, the noise) and he's playing his violin with all the other kids! What a moment. It literally made all the running around to therapies, the countless hours of one on one work, everything I did in that time, worth it. Totally worth it. Happy birthday my son, my gift to you is the opportunity to be whatever you want to be.