“TREVOR’S WORLD”

(Submittals for Chicken Soup For the Soul; Children with Special Needs) I have a son named Trevor he’s not like you and me when he was born he changed our life in ways we couldn’t see In his crib we hung up mobiles he loved to watch them spin but his cows never quite “jumped the moon” as we sat and wondered when:    He would communicate, or talk to us we looked for any sign but he didn’t progress in a “normal” way he was “locked” inside his mind And so began the visits to the hospitals, and such but when they came back they always said “we can’t do very much” He is autistic, also PDD and epileptic too he’s apraxic with low muscle tone “there’s not much you can do” So, medications special diets and therapy we tried to help our son in every way as we sometimes sat and cried He had no sense of danger, could not tell right from wrong he could not be left alone at all we would watch him all day long He would climb on tables and TV’s would stand and reach from chairs he was more adept at mountain skills than he was on normal stairs And if left alone in a yard or lot he would just begin to go there was nothing that would stop him and he didn’t even know Where he wanted to end up it mattered not one bit because hours and days could pass on end before he chose to sit He is thirteen now and at a school which is a very special place where there are angelic saints who teach him with care and gentle grace Trevor knows what he is saying, he communicates by sign he makes you understand him it just takes a little time We communicate by touching there’s some things which give him calm like running thread along his leg or by massaging his little palm It surprises me when I meet the ones who care for him at school or the ones who he rides horses with or the instructor at the pool He can’t play sports or army and scouts and bikes won’t do but there’s another world for kids like Trev that these people take them to Its a place that lets them know that they have ability and right to participate in all we do regardless of their plight And while its hard on families to care for kids like this Trevor has released me, and has shown me what I missed With my other kids I’d focus on achievement and on grades on pushing hard, cause it takes so much to succeed in things these days But Trevor’s goals are not the same as they are for me and you to watch him simply laugh and smile he’s as happy as he can be I go with him into his world away from all the “stuff” from the things that drive us crazy which really is all fluff He smiles and signs “I love you” his way of saying thanks “for doing this little thing with me” he knows how much it takes I think he knows more than he says or can communicate to me but if he wasn’t born this way there’s a place I’d never see. As parents of disabled kids though hard beyond belief they have a way of taking back a small part of that grief And God or nature works this way by allowing us to deal by finding something, however small in a way to make us feel That our efforts are not all in vain that there really is a plan that teaches us all to learn “accept me as I am” Though immune from all the problems that most of us do face he doesn’t care, he brings me there to his special little place.