Special Mom’s blog

This is for Natalie’s Weekend Coffee Share:

Things began normal for my boy Friday morning, and he attended his program and made a small ornament. It was a social club and he did play a game with another person and I would say that would be the end of socialization for the week. But things became very busy come Friday evening when we decided to attend the Canonsburg’s Old Fashion Christmas. We missed the Christmas tree lighting but did walk around the shops and we enjoyed the sight and sound of Christmas all around.

Then Saturday morning was breakfast at Panera Bread. It is more than breakfast, since we train my boy to clear his plate there. Sorting the recycling, trash and putting the plates and spoons in the bin is a task for him. He gets to eat his treat and gets trained to be out in the community. If you have been at Panera you can see a lot of special needs people working there. So this is a very easy place for us to be.

Boy, it did not stop there. My family participated in the celebration of Bhagavad Gita Jayanthi at the Temple that evening. What was just supposed to be chanting of just one third of the holy text, turned out to be the whole text. It was truly blissful and I should congratulate my son on being patient with us as me and my husband decided to participate in chanting full the whole text. By the way the entire chanting took nearly 2 and half hours.

So did we stop there with my boy. No we did go out to the Temple again for an engagement announcement Sunday morning. This was a bit debated if I should go alone or we take my boy with us. But I decided he needed to come with us and we should be there as a family to bless the engaged couples. We chose the last row in the auditorium and he did annoy with his ipad sound but it was not much. But we did make through the whole function. Then it was a surprise for my boy. The lunch was a traditional South Indian feast served on a banana leaf. Yes we had spoons and napkins but we had to eat with our hands the traditional way. My son immediately asked for a plate, we were offered one, but we said he would be eating from the banana leaf and Oh boy he did finish of his lunch quick and enjoyed that too in the process.

Sunday is not over for me, since I plan to put up my Christmas Tree. But that is going to be inside the four walls of my house and that is easy compared to the last forty eight hours.

Taking my son out in the public is hard and logistics have to be worked out. But I should thank my community in general for accepting my son. The more I take him out I see them accepting and acknowledging us. The more he goes out into the community he learns the etiquette or get used to it. We may not have a normal social life, but I am glad with whatever I am having and happy to take whatever more is yet to come.