You hear them all the time…. “One step at a time”, “slow and steady wins the race”, “take baby steps”…… It all starts with one movement, one thing to get the big ball rolling. {ONE BABY STEP}
One afternoon during Christmas break 2011 while at Jennifer’s house, I hear Jennifer say “Michael come see what’s on the counter, climb up here.”
I looked{admittedly not right away}, I see Michael get up on his knees, his arms stretched up and holding onto the edge of the counter. I’m holding my breath…. in my mind I’m saying “Ohh please, please, please, slow and steady."could this be The moment? The moment we have been waiting for? The moment when Michael realizes there is more to the world than what is on the floor? The moment his brain tells his legs what to do?
YES!
It is it is That moment the one that starts it all. We have Lift off! Arms pull up oh! There is one leg and two legs, we are standing! But wait it gets better!….Not just standing but Michael then starts to creep around the island……. And we’re off! I now start to breathe {as I wipe the tears away so I can see} not just your normal breath but the breath of relief and admittedly the breath of UMPH I TOLD YOU SO DR’s.
You see, it wasn’t all but 3 years ago Dr’s were telling us Michael would “probably” not walk. As a parent I could not believe this. I could not believe that my son who had NOTHING wrong with him muscularly or skeletally would not walk.
“He has a brain abnormality not a muscular, skeletal abnormality.” We would say.
I can’t tell you how many times we TOLD Dr’s that since it is a brain abnormality then we can retrain Michael’s brain to make the connections needed to walk. Much like a stroke victim would need to retrain their brain after a stroke, and time and time again we were told by Dr’s that because Michael was born with this abnormality that it could not be treated like a “brain injury”. “WHY?” If you can train a brain to do the things it needs to do after an injury like a stroke then why can’t you mold and form a “NEW” little brain to compensate for itself and function the way it is suppose to?
Well…YOU CAN! And Michael is proof!!!
So now in just this short time in just 2 months we have gone from creeping around counters to me saying “Wait for Mommy Michael!” as he takes off with his walker not giving any regard to my request what so ever.
I can’t tell you how much I love that I have to now chase after Michael…
Scooting is slowly becoming a thing of the past. Slowly but surely we are winning this race! Now the world is showing Michael all the things he has been missing while in his chair. Suddenly the shampoo and conditioner on the bottom shelf in the grocery store is interesting, suddenly we are now bombarded with a string of “what’s that’s” all over again.
His world is bigger, no more is he confined by the bounds of his wheel chair and where we choose to take him but, where he is going to take himself. A world where if Michael is tired he walks himself down the hall and climbs into bed on his own, a world where if he wants to go play he just goes. A world where I am told {as I get his chair out of the car}..
“NO! Mom, Mike walk”
Nothing makes me happier than to abide by what he is telling me in his most demanding little voice and let him walk. I will not deny him his request. I don’t care if it takes us an hour to go get milk at the store…{slow and steady wins the race}
Michael is winning this race, Michael will not be beat. I have learned one thing and that is enjoy each wobbly, unsure step this life has to offer AND don’t give up, NEVER give up. Take baby steps, Take one step at a time …Slow and steady wins the race.”I love you my Michael Allen, You continue to prove every medical professional wrong, and you are winning this race son. I will be waiting; arms wide open for you ALWAYS at the finish line.
