This afternoon Little Buddy and I made our first trip to the splash park this summer. I'll tell you it is exactly what I needed. Just to see the joy on his little freckled face was the tonic this weary heart needed today. I have had a very busy two weeks at work, lots of patient visits and lots of progress notes to write. Notes is not the correct word to use, really they are progress novels! I have to keep my fingers crossed the kids I see will continue to get the services they need, cuts are being made everywhere.
Little Buddy has completed two weeks of morning summer camp. This camp is being held with his retired pre-school teacher and several other teachers and therapists. It is so nice to see him involved and having fun. And the best part of all is leaving him with people I trust. It is not easy to find a program that will take a little person with special needs. He needs continued work on socialization skills and he can get this at camp with teachers who understand him. After camp, speech therapy, and my private patient this afternoon I decided we needed to go to this wonderful splash park near us for a bit. Little Buddy was thrilled and had just the best time. I love all the little ones that walk up to him and want a turn with his walker, their parents are usually a bit horrified their children are taking his walker for a spin but I encourage it. I always tell the parents it is a great way for their kids to see a walker and not think it is different or strange. Boys are especially drawn to it, it must be the wheels!
You all know how very blessed I feel having this amazing miracle boy in my life. I have to admit I have been so depressed the last few weeks with the stories of all those immigrant parents losing their children, almost 2,000 at last count. I can't even imagine what they are feeling, what those beautiful children must be thinking. This is a horrific thing to happen to them. They will be scarred emotionally, psychologically and physically for life. This is not something you get over. I work with children in the foster care system all the time, some of which will have attachment issues their whole lives because of what they have been through, not in foster care, but the trauma they have experienced in life. It is devastating to me that we as a country are allowing this to happen. What have we become to think that separating families is okay?
Maybe we all need a little Little Buddy to make us smile. But even with those darling freckles that I can't get enough of, I can't forget those children who have lost their families, their childhoods, their security, and the love of their parents, who only want a better life for them, just like all of our ancestors wanted for us.
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