I believe in miracles, always have, and have lived a few in my own life. I also believe miracles come to light with the help of others. They don't just happen, they are set on a course by different people becoming an important part of life. That might sound a little crazy to some but all of the miracles I have encountered have involved all the right people colliding. In one year I have had to make some drastic decisions that changed everything and placed all the right people in our lives. Call it Gods plan, call it coincidence, call it what you will but watching it happen is nearly unexplainable and I will give it a shot.
Halloween one year ago and every year before that was literally a nightmare. Putting a costume on my son alone was like torturing him. I would have to wrestle it on and we would leave the house with him screaming. He had almost no understanding of the process of trick or treating and honestly I wondered if he ever would. Last year we knocked on 6 doors and by that time my son was completely finished. Meltdown was coming and we had to stop with me feeling like he would possibly never get to enjoy a Halloween night for years, if ever. I cried about it and was more than frustrated with how to help him but there was nothing I could do alone to make it easier. I had done everything I knew to do at the time and I did not have any help at all, or help that made any kind of difference. I know it's a little silly to cry over a Halloween tradition but he is my child and that tradition is something children should be able to enjoy. Not knowing if your child will ever even speak the right words can be a very hard reality to embrace and a very real one.
One year later, tonight, we left the house in a costume he loved. The first 5 houses I walked him to the door and helped him to understand how it was going to work. They had gone over this process for fun at the center this morning but I wasn't sure how the real deal would go. Here comes the miracle, the next house I stopped in the driveway and said to him "you go ahead Phillip, do this one alone." That is exactly what he did without hesitation. He had to work at it of course, but being able to watch him from a distance walk up alone, knock on the door, say the words trick or treat, hold up his bag, and then say thank you made tears gush out of my eyes. He had a difficult time opening his bag and each person he encountered helped him out. After that one time of going alone every single house after was all his and there was a lot of them. keep in mind I already felt we had a miracle happening with the simple fact he was able to just speak the words "trick or treat" this year and in no way expected anything more. As far as I was concerned that was enough because I know how hard he has worked to just do that.
Towards the end of our trick or treating we walked up a driveway near our home and the person sitting under a red light in a garage said "hi Phillip!" As we got closer we saw one of the ABA therapists smile and I was reminded his fight has not just been time or his own desire to work at it, it has also very much been the people who have worked to make those miracles happen, all the right people at all the right times, in all the right places helping him break down those barriers that made all of our Halloween, extremely short nights, in the past a nightmare.
Miracles are real and without all the right things falling into place or even making hard decisions that put it all in place I don't think we would be seeing the things we have seen happening in the past year with my son and I never ever grow tired of seeing it happen. It's the fuel that keeps me believing the next one is just around the corner. Around the corner might take days, weeks, months, or years to get too but they come. For now, I am more than excited for next Halloween and every single day in between. Tears this year were not because of his struggle of feeling helpless but tears of joy from having help and seeing him overcome like a champion!
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