Okay, enough talk of things that don’t really matter. Celebrities will spend money. I will think they are stupid. Moving on.

I meant to post this last month. During the Holidays. But because it WAS the holidays I got distracted by all of the shiny things and forgot. But this was a big deal to me.

Casey has autism. Casey is a miracle. These two things I know for sure. We have seen SO many miracles with him. Sometimes I get frustrated with the mean things he says to me. Or the stuff he yells when he’s angry. But I have to remember how freaking wonderful it is that he talks at all. That could very well not be the case with him.

This year, as I’ve mentioned, is Casey’s first year in a mainstream class. That’s a huge deal by itself. Just a year ago his old school told us that he might never be able to be mainstreamed.  One year. The second graders this year had planned a field trip to the nursing home to perform all of the songs they had been working on. Casey had been having a rough week so I was REALLY worried about him going. He’s never really done anything like it before. He’d been in Primary Programs at church, but usually he didn’t last through it, and this last one he came home and cried for an hour after because it was SO stressful for him. I was worried he’d freak out in the middle and run out. So I cancelled Abby’s appointments for the day and met his class at the nursing home.

What happened next was part miracle and part hard work. Sorry the video is grainy and shaky. Casey is standing on the far right in the blue sweater:

The video is shaky because I was full on crying. Yes. The kids are all singing “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and I’m the crazy mom in the back that is bawling openly.  He’s singing AND doing the actions! I would have been thrilled just to have him be up there with his class staring off into space. This was Christmas for me.

It gets better. After their performance, they were instructed to go meet the elderly people. To introduce themselves and to shake hands. The kids all stood back tentatively. Casey walked right up to the person closest to him, stuck out his hand and said, “Hi! I’m Casey! Merry Christmas!”

How sweet it was! It was amazing to me to look around and see the other parents. They, too, were proud of their kids. But for them, it really was any other day. For us, it was magic. It was a huge win. It was everything. Makes me grateful for the hard times. For the things we’ve been through. It makes times like these that much more spectacular.