Your Son is a Blessing

As I searched previous posts, I was surprised I hadn't done a post on his bus driver because, quite simply, she's the absolute best. Case in point, on Thursday I loaded Teddy and AJ into/onto their respective vans and buses for school and walked into the garage to get into my car for work. That's when I discovered I was still wearing Teddy's minion backpack. Whoops. I called his driver, who headed back to our house to grab it, saving me the time and hassle of getting it to school.

That's just one example of her awesomeness, although I could do an entire post. The point of this post, though, is to share what she told me this week Tuesday. As I loaded Teddy into her van, she said, "Your son is such a blessing." She then proceeded to tell me about the impact she's seen on another little boy, whom I'll call Jordan for the purposes of sharing the story.

Jordan is a 4th grader who started riding Lori's van a few weeks ago. Jordan's ride home is nearly an hour long, and it includes picking up Teddy from his school and bringing him home. Jordan is having a number of challenges at school to the point where it seems he doesn't have many options left if his actions continue. If I had to guess, he's probably the reason that Lori now has a camera in her van as a safeguard for her in case a child makes false accusations. When Jordan first started riding, Lori commented that Teddy enjoyed having another child for his ride home.

Now Jordan moves from the front seat of the van to the middle, right across from Teddy, when they pick up Teddy. He plays with Teddy during the drive, doing what he can to make Teddy laugh and giggle. Earlier this week he made a paper mask for Teddy as a gift. (It was a pretty creepy mask, but it seemed like Teddy liked it until he tried to eat it.)

Lori said it's incredible what an impact one person can have on another. She said this troubled little boy is a completely different person when he's riding with Teddy.

I believe it. Aside from those who live with Teddy where our patience sometimes wears a bit thin, I've seen Teddy bring out the best in different people in his life. He's engaged people who really didn't like interacting with young children. He's softened people who are pretty gruff around the edges. There's something about his smile, enthusiasm and joy that just works magic.

For Jordan, my guess is that it's quite simply Teddy's acceptance and happiness to see Jordan each day. He doesn't have expectations of Jordan's behavior nor does he ever say anything mean, hurtful or judgmental to Jordan. He's just excited to see him each day.

Imagine if we could replicate that, even a portion of the time. We carry so many judgments and preconceived notions about people and try to categorize them, yet Teddy's standards for a friend are pretty simple: If you smile at me, and you're not wearing some strange costume like a Santa Claus or Easter Bunny outfit, then you're my friend. He's proven this time and time again by grabbing strangers' hands when they smile at him. Now, I don't quite advocate that because you'd probably get a lot of weird looks at a minimum, but at least a smile in return goes a long way to make the world a better place.