A Christmas Miracle???

It started on November 12^th. As soon as Remembrance Day was “finished”…the next ‘day of Observance’ in Riley World was THE topic of conversation.  Daily.  Hourly.  Oh heck…every time I saw him.  :O

It goes something like this…“Christmas is coming. In December it is Christmas. What’s in December? Christmas. I need to wait patiently to open my presents. What do I need to wait?  Patiently.”   Ad nauseam.   Over and over and over again.  *sobbing*

This is because all things in Riley World revolve around statutory holidays/specials days/special events. It has been this way since……forever.

On December 1^st the outside lights HAD to be up. Come rain, shine, sleet, hail or snow…the lights MUST be up and ready to be turned on. I stalled as long as I could bought myself some time and promised Riley that the tree/decorations would go up this weekend after I had time to ummmm tidy up the living room. Who am I kidding…our house will never be tidy.  :(

So after G & R left for R’s Special Olympics swimming class this morning…because I am *written in sarcasm font* an awesome autism mom and would like nothing better to do with my TIME ALONE than to clean, vacuum and dust…I downed my coffee and dragged dusted off  got out the vacuum cleaner. Don’t get me wrong…I LOVE Christmas! Only…NOT first thing on a Saturday morning. Just sayin’…

And then…Riley came home. The clouds parted and the angels started to sing. He happily ran up and down the stairs bringing up (one at a time of course) tubs and boxes of decorations. The entire time pleased as punch with himself.

Now Riley had been talking incessantly excitedly about wanting to decorate the tree with dad for weeks on end. Yet he has never…EVER wanted to touch the tree so I seriously had my doubts. Last year we had moved a step closer with Riley “directing” G where to hang the decorations.

And then…the skies were bright blue and the angels WERE SCREAMING!!

LOOOOOOOOOOK. AT. HIMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!

HE'S TOUCHING THE TREE AND EVERYTHING!  YES...I KNOW I'M TYPING IN CAPS BUT THIS DESERVES ALL CAPS!!!

20 years old and Riley WANTED to decorate the tree!!

Our Christmas Miracle...indeed!  <3

Back to Blogging....

I had been struggling. What to blog. So I just didn’t.

My last 2 posts were memes. That was almost 8 months ago.

I was at a cross roads. After Riley finished high school over a year ago, I decided “we” needed to take a gap year. Am I regretting that? Absolutely not! I think both Riley and I needed this past year to regroup, re-energize and get ready to take on the next phase.

Adulthood.

Sounds scary doesn’t it.

When Riley was in school there was a plan. A direction of sorts. Even though there was some uncertainty…there was a plan. A schedule if you will. From September through June, Riley would be in school. Developing, learning, and socializing.

For 14 years (Riley repeated Kindergarten) we had a plan. Even though I could only look ahead a year at a time…there was a plan. For 14 years.

And then… 

We had no plan. 

***

I found the above half-written post in my drafts folder along with a link to this OMG-THIS-IS-US!!! article “Loosening the Ties that Bind: Growing Up with Autism” by Liane Kupferberg Carter.

Her last paragraph sums it up perfectly “But we must. And we will figure out what comes next. We will do this just as we have done everything else these past twenty years. Pulling together as a family.”

Thanks Liane! I think I am ready again to hit the ground running  jogging slowly  okay…perhaps just walking.

I think I am ready to take on this adulthood thing with some renewed energy.

I am ready.