Back to School

Our long summer—thanks to the spinal fusion and extended recovery time—came to an abrupt end on August 19th when James went back to school to start the 5th grade.

He made it a whole three days before he got sick and ended up spending a couple of days in the hospital. It was some sort of respiratory thing, but we’re not exactly sure what. The ER said it was pneumonia, but the PICU doctor didn’t think so. Whatever it was, it wasn’t too serious and only spent a couple of days in the hospital before they let him come home. He stayed home for a couple of days before we sent him back to school to celebrate his birthday with his classmates. They even gave him a special award at school for his birthday:

Birthday Boy

It’s hard to believe that James is 10 years old. Ten years of ups and downs; smiles and cries; laugher and sadness. It’s been one hell of a journey, and not one that Stacy and I ever imagined taking when we decided to start a family. I often wonder if we knew what James’ and our lives would be like prior to conceiving James, if we would have still done it. Sometimes I say no, but not just because it’s been hard on both Stacy and me. It’s also because it’s a tough world out there and James can’t do a lot of the things that kids should be doing, and he won’t have the opportunities that most people have. But then sometimes I think that I would do it all over again if given the choice. In a way I think he’s going to change the world more than most of us ‘normal’ people will. I mean just look at all the lives he’s touched in his ten short years on this earth. It’s probably more than Stacy and I combined.

“We made it!!! There have been several times that I was not sure if we were going to make it to 10!!! We love you sooo much James… and we do ANYTHING & EVERYTHING for you!!”

~ Stacy

As you may have guessed from the picture above, his birthday theme this year was donuts. No particular reason other than a long john looks like the number 1, and a regular donut looks like a 0. We also like donuts.

I’ve posted this picture in a couple of previous posts, but in case you didn’t read them, this was his birthday cake this year:

He took some “donut” cookies to school to share:

Someone even gave him a book about donuts for his birthday:

We were supposed to have a party for him on the 25th, but we had to cancel because he was in the hospital.

We’re planning a smaller party with just family next weekend. Better late than never, right?

Other Fun

In early August our township’s disability services department had a summer celebration event. James got to pet a bunny rabbit and meet an owl; a balloon artist made him a hat with a monkey climbing a tree; and we even took a quick trip to Paris.

A friend made James some additional spinal fusion shirts. Now he has an assortment of colors to choose from:

I was debating if I should post this picture or not because I think that some people may find it offensive. This is Stacy’s new shirt:

If you are one of those that find the shirt offensive, let me just say this. Raising a disabled child is hard. Sometimes it’s just a real pain in the ass. James will never be able to do anything on his own; he will need to be cared for his entire life. Anyone in our position has two choices. You can either bitch and complain about it and be absolutely miserable and bitter; or you can accept it, make the best of it, and have a little bit of fun with it. We choose the latter. Don’t get me wrong. We would do almost anything for James to be able to walk, talk, eat by mouth, etc. But we have come to accept that he will never be able to do any of those things, so we have a little bit of fun with it here and there.