Summer Vacation

We reached the middle of our first week of summer vacation and we are still alive. I don't know if I've mentioned how much Taylor loves school, so just in case…SHE LOVES SCHOOL!!!!

Taylor gets bored easily and when Taylor is bored, we all have to suffer right along with her. She needs the constant stimulation that school gives her and this summer; I'm just not able to take her outside and do a lot of things with her. We run our business from our home and I am needed here to answer the phones, do the bookkeeping and handle the customers.

Once my middle daughter's background check goes through, she will get paid for watching Taylor…gotta love respite care. I know that it's hard on Taylor to be home all day…she has the attention span of a gnat. She isn't really verbal so most of the time, I know I'm probably missing whatever point she is trying to make when she starts making a bunch of sounds. That must really be hard, to want to communicate but just not have any words. She does sign some things and she actually has about a 10-15 word vocabulary, but that is just not enough some times.

Thankfully, Taylor does qualify for extended school, so she will start that in July and go through August. Unfortunately, Taylor turns 21 before the start of school in 2011, so this coming year will be her last. Where we go from there, I don't have a clue. They say a work program, but honestly, how do you find a work program for a 21 year old toddler who can't be left alone because of constant seizures?

That's one of those things I'll just have to figure out in the coming year.

Divine Intervention

I wrote this about 9 months ago before I got the idea to start putting all my writings about Taylor in an online journal. I happened to find it tonight tucked away in a folder and thought I would publish it here. It was very nice to remember how I felt.

You know, there are those times in life when you realize that Someone bigger than yourself is directing what you do. I had one of those days today. It's not that i don't believe in God…i most certainly do. I just have some trouble right now reconciling religion and the way I live (not being married to my significant other). Okay, enough about religion. This entry has to do with being directed by God to a place where I was needed.

So,I decided to run to the grocery store to get a few things. I didn't really need to go, but I figured, "why not". As usual, when Taylor is home, I take her with me. She loves going to the store. She has quite a few "friends" there. By friends, I mean employees. They are always so sweet to her.

Anyway, Taylor and I finish shopping and head to the checkout line. I was going to go to the Express lane, but thought I had one too many items, so I headed to the next one. The cashier smiled at Taylor and then she started to tear up. She apologized and then went on to tell me that her 8 year old son was hurt by someone when he was 7 months old and was now profoundly developmentally delayed with seizures.

She told me that she had been feeling down all day, but that seeing Taylor gave her some hope for her child and what he may be like as an adult. Taylor was being her normal cute self and that was the best compliment that I could have ever gotten about her.

She needed to be lifted up today and the fact that Taylor and I went to the store and ended up in her line was not a coincidence. To me, it was "divine intervention". God put Taylor and I in a place to be of help to someone who needed lifted out of the despair she was feeling. By doing that, we helped her, but I was also helped. I was shown that my profoundly, developmentally delayed child has a purpose in life, other than being my baby. She can be an example of what God's love on earth is like.