Acceptance Comes with Time

While the adage that time heals all wounds may not be perfectly true, time helps tremendously in terms of acceptance of your child's diagnosis and needs.

I remember the first time that Teddy needed a piece of adapted equipment: his orthotic braces to help stabilize his ankles. I shed a few tears after the therapist left the house for the fitting. There was something about a physical object, a piece of adaptive equipment, that I couldn't deny my son needed. Teddy needing adaptive equipment, first in the form of ankle braces and then in the form of a gait trainer, was a hard pill to swallow despite the fact that I knew he benefited greatly from them.

Now, a couple years later, Teddy has been approved for three pieces of adaptive equipment in the past few months (five if you count his most recent braces and SPIOs (think Spanx for toddlers to help stabilize his core)). I couldn't be more excited about Teddy getting his own adapted bike, and neither could he. Today I got the response from his case worker that he would be eligible for an adapted booster seat to help at meal times since a traditional booster seat really isn't functional for him.
Instead of feeling depressed that he needs yet another support, I'm excited about the possibilities of meals going smoother with the right equipment. And, quite honestly, I'm amazed at how easy the process was with his county funding. I might have told his case worker that she's like Santa Claus. (Hey, I give her my wish list, and she makes it happen.)

This is the booster seat we're hoping to order for Teddy.

This isn't to say that there aren't new challenges that occur that require additional time to process or that things like birthdays and holidays are tough at times because of milestones not reached. (Shopping for presents really emphasizes that fact.) But these last pieces of adapted equipment I've been able to view as assets that benefit Teddy with no strings attached, which is so nice.

And that third piece I mentioned? That's another post for another day. But it's exciting.