I mentioned in an earlier post that I am a married SAHM to 4 children, the oldest is special needs. My Thomas will be 17yrs old very soon and has a multitude of diagnosis’. First off, it blows my mind that I am the mother of a 17 year old young man. Thomas is the main reason I am who I am today. He changed me. He changed me for the better and in that respect I wouldn’t change my life but I would change his if that could be possible. I would want him to have every experience every other 17 year old would have, but then again God didn’t want or plan it this way so I need to embrace all the experiences he has had and will have in his life. My son is loved by the staff at his school and truely liked by his peers as well. If that isn’t wonderful and a blessing I don’t know what is.
Thomas does not live at home, he attends a residential school. Residential means he lives there. Again, this wasn’t in mine or my husband’s plans, but it was/is God’s plan. I believe that with all my heart.
Before we arrived at the point where we had to decide that a residential school was the best option for Thomas and our family, Thomas was my yardsale/thrift buddy. We had a great time finding and searching around yard sales together. Back then my girls weren’t too interested in yard sales (even today 2 out of 3 girls still aren’t thrilled with the thrift~go figure). Thomas would always ask, “What do they have at the yard sale Mom??”. I’d give him my standard answer, “You never know what we’ll find, right Tom? It’s a yard sale not a store”. And he would nod in agreement. We had a quiet peaceful time together. Usually the people hosting the various yard sales would recognize that Thomas is special needs and fall over themselves to give him whatever he was looking at, no matter what that item was. Even if I protested they would insist. It was sweet and my son always said “Thank you”.
I haven’t even touched on what an enabler my son is. Anything I picked up and looked interested in Thomas would come right next to me, “You gonna buy that Mom? Mom that’s nice!! You should buy that! You gonna buy that?”. You couldn’t help but smile and lightly laugh as many times at a yard sale you pick up things just to figure out what they are, not necessarily to buy them. I would quietly answer, “No Tom…I’m just looking, we don’t have to buy everything….I don’t need one of those” This scenario was the same if we were in a thrift store, church bazaar, Goodwill, flea market, etc…
I miss these time with him but I’m thrilled to have the memories and to have a son who loved the thrift as much as I do.
Menay O; mom to 4, Christian and thrift shopper on the side... 