Touched by Angels

I can't believe I'm writing this. Caden will be 3 years old in less than 2 weeks. Wait, 3..?!? Where the HECK did the time go? I am quite certain that just a few weeks ago I was holding him in my arms for the first time ever and marveling at how right he felt in that place. Now he'll have preschool, and be riding a school bus, and meeting new little friends and having new experiences that might overwhelm or even frighten him at first. Man,turning 3 is going to be so hard....on Mommy. Not just because he's getting to be such a big boy and learning and growing in leaps and bounds, but because of what turning 3 means we have to now leave behind us.

I had very specific dreams / visions of first-time motherhood. My baby would curl their little fist around my finger as they nursed, their little feet would scrunch up against me as I held them chest-to-chest, and their little body would be just as perfect as could possibly be.

Then I had Caden.

Those dreams dissolved, awash in diagnoses I barely understood. My baby couldn't curl his fist around my finger because his own fingers didn't bend, he couldn't scrunch his feet up against my chest because he lived the first 4 weeks of life in plaster casts and the rest of the time in boots with a bar between his feet, and his little body overall was far from 'perfect'. We were told he probably wouldn't walk without some kind of external adaptive means of aid, were warned that he might never hold a pencil or crayon or spoon or be able to feed and dress himself. What a reality, I thought.

Then I met the 'team' from Early Intervention that was chosen to work with him, as they came and went in his life and in terms of his care as each saw him. Now, because of them, I have a new reality: My baby can curl all but his very top knuckle on both hands, he learned to walk on his own (even if late) without any external means to keep him upright, he's learned to hold pencils and crayons and spoons, and has met every other major milestone so far in his life either on time or just a few months (instead of years) behind. Because of them, Caden has a new reality as well. They helped him get to where he is today; a stupidly happy 3 year old who loves school, loves people, loves life, and can experience it as most any other toddler his age would. They helped him express that joy when it came time to master sign language and then speech, and fed that joy with an outpouring of love whenever they saw him, in a therapy setting or not.

His little mind may need some jogging in the years to come to recall their names and faces....but his mother will NEVER forget. As he moves into his 3rd birthday and we prepare to leave these precious people, I know that his 'team' will never leave us. They have made their mark. And I can look people in the eye and declare without hesitation - or doubt - that my life has been touched by Angels.

Tonight at the Early Intervention Christmas party, I gave them (as a group) a little plant with bright yellow leaves, with a little note I'd written that read simply:

"Doctors told Mom I was 'different',
People said I'd be slow,
So I just wanted to say thank-you...
For helping me grow."

My heart is so full, and 'Thank you' will never be enough for these people.

Caden's Early Intervention team:

Bottom, L to R: Teacher Becky, Teacher Sue, Judy (OT)
Top, L to R: Barbara (PT), Suellen (Speech), Michelle (RN)