He continues to amaze me! SDR Changes Lives

I keep saying progress is slow and it is but that is okay. He isn't 3 years old and full of enthusiasm. He is 13 and has gotten used to be disabled and sitting in a wheelchair and having people do everything for him. Progress is slow because of his age but I see a ton of potential in him. I have seen 3 year old children walking independently by now and we are only getting him to stand on his own for a whopping 2 seconds. I went into this entire process being okay with this. Slow and steady wins the race and I am in this for the long haul! Sometimes I have to remind myself that he has had 13 years to develop bad habits, develop fears, learn to NOT trust his body.


I still get super excited with every tiny milestone. He loves making me happy and I can tell that he is so proud of himself. He actually loves to be pushed and see his own body transform. We constantly tell him how proud we are and keep him motivated. We try to reward him with mom time which really helps him focus. He honestly can do anything he puts his mind to and he always amazes me.

This morning he was doing his lego routine and he yelled across the house that he had finished. My husband said okay now go get into your chair. He has never gotten into his wheelchair from the floor without us right by his side. I couldn't even watch because it is so nerve wracking to watch. He does it well but once he stands up he has to turn his body in a fast motion and if he misses his chair he will fall and fall hard. He has only fallen once or twice over the last 10 months so he has a great track record. This was all about confidence, he needs this so badly! So he crawled off of his peanut ball and across the room to his wheelchair, climbed in, buckled himself and wheeled himself into the dining room where we were having coffee. I am not sure I can explain what we felt inside. This may have been my proudest moment! For the first time ever we did not go and help our child. He went from the FLOOR in one room and met us in his wheelchair.

So even though progress is slow he never stops progressing. I often look back at videos to see how far he has come and how well he looks. I forget that I just took his walker supports off 2 months ago and was afraid to let him walk without me by his side and then last week had him out in the grocery store with me walking around without me even close to him. It is so easy to forget how far they come and how strong they have gotten in just a few months. I have no idea what life will be like in 5 years but I know a few of his goals:

To walk onto the school bus (instead of in his wheelchair on the ramp)
To stay up later than us and put himself to bed
To drive

So lets see if we can reach any of those goals by the time he is 18.