I wish I could have said so many more things in the news story. Brendan is seriously one amazing kid. Yes he doesn't leave the house all that much but partly because in some ways he is a typical teenager that doesn't want to. He doesn't have that many friends but so many people love this kid. I see it all over town. He can't just go get his license or go get a part time job like kids his age but he gets many opportunities like interning at the Police Station or actually going on stage in a high school play because the drama teacher is absolutely amazing. He is a happy kid. He enjoys his life. Some days are boring but then I think about my 11 and 14 year old and realize that they have some really boring days too. Having 5 kids means that we spend a lot of time at home. We can't spend a lot of money so we hang at home and have family movie nights or take walks or take the golf cart though the woods in the middle of Winter.
We try to give him a fulfilling life. We have pushed ourselves to the limits with this kid. We have taken him on water slides which means his tiny mother carried him up those huge flights of stairs just so he could experience it. We take him camping and to amusement parks. We always make sure he can do everything his siblings do. Unfortunately it is getting more difficult, I am not going to lie. He is 16 now and 5' tall and only weighs 20 lbs less than I do. Lifting him is getting more challenging. It is hard to maneuver him into vehicles and rides. We took the kids to Disney a few years ago and we would take turns on taking him on the rides. I think it was my last year of being able to walk him over to the ride and lift him in. His legs are so long now that it is really difficult to get him in quickly.
Running around with a bunch of kids in tow is never easy. Dragging Brendan around with us is even more difficult especially if we are running to a bunch of stores. We have to lift him into the van, take his wheel off of his wheelchair and lift that into the trunk and then do this all over again once we arrive at the store. If we are just running in and out this becomes exhausting. Then we have to push him around half of the time because either he is too slow or he tires and doesn't want to wheel himself around. Although he doesn't have a lot of friends his age he knows everyone. It is always nice to see everyone saying hello to him in the school hallways or if he runs into classmates while out and about. He often is more friendly with adults. He has been like this since he was 3 years old. I always thought this was because adults have been a huge part of his life since he was 6 months old which all began with in home therapy. He has also probably been to a thousand doctor appointments. He has therapy in school and saw the nurse daily for years. They are a huge presence in his life and have always been wonderful to him. They are his friends. He wasn't able to keep up with his peers along the way but adults stay and talk and listen to him.
Brendan has a great life. He has so many positive experiences and amazing people that show love and support. We never want pity. We want people to see this kid for who he is. He has challenges but has a huge personality that draws people to him. We will never stop giving him the life that he deserves.
One thing is for sure though. He has the best siblings. 3 of them begged to sleep in his room last night so they had a sleepover. Things like this make him very happy. He loves his siblings to the moon and back.
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