A Boy and His Bus

It's no secret that Teddy loves buses. I've written multiple times about his bus ride adventures, from city buses to big, yellow buses for field trips. But he also had an incredibly special bus encounter that I want to share.

Teddy's former bus driver has made it into blog posts multiple times, including the aptly named Best Bus Driver Ever post. Through the 2.5 years she drove Teddy, we developed a friendship. She fell in love with Teddy's giggles and infectious smile, and we so appreciated her care and love for Teddy. We never worried when Teddy was with Ms. Lori. We loved the updates she sent us and always tried to make sure she knew how special she was to our family (and not just because she took Teddy away from the house for several hours each day). 

When COVID struck, Ms. Lori got her CDL to drive big buses (as she always transported Teddy in a mini-van) with us rooting for her. She transferred to a different city's routes, which wasn't too traumatic for us because Teddy wasn't being bussed due to COVID and our weird hybrid schooling situation. (Trust me, it made this school year harder when he went back to school finally.)

We stayed in touch, though, meeting for walks, masked visits in the early days and plenty of treats door dropped to brighten each other's days. I have often told her that Teddy's dream would simply be to have a bus of his own.

And this summer, she made that dream come true for an afternoon. 

Ms. Lori worked her magic to borrow a bus and showed up in our driveway this summer. Teddy was bouncing up and down and couldn't even stop to say hi as he bounced onto the bus. He spent the next hour living his dream, making all of us (AJ, Sigrid our sitter, Ms. Lori and I sit where he wanted us on his bus, buckle in and take turns driving. 

Teddy ran a tight ship, though, and made us follow his rules. His rules included the door could not remain open, even though it was almost 90 degrees. Every time anyone opened the door, he had to scoot to the front to shut it. Thankfully he at least let us open all the windows. 

These two adore each other. :-)

It was such a simple thing, although it required some effort on Ms. Lori's part to make it happen. Her gift of time and effort was the highlight of Teddy's week and was a special day that we all will remember for years to come.

Can't you just feel his joy!?!?

These gifts, ones of time, energy and presence, are the ones that truly make all the difference in the world.

Thank you again Ms. Lori!