To walk a mile in his shoes

Sept. 20, 2009

By now, those who frequent this site have seen the most recent movie (Walking update) and the great things my son has been doing especially during his physical therapy sessions.

To give a little more definition to what he’s actually doing, he generally has a routine that he will work through during this session. Loving to be outside, Abbi takes him out the back door and down the sidewalk about 15 feet from the door. He’d never shown any real interest going away from the door, just heading toward it, but more on that later.

Once back inside, Nathan walks the whole length of the ‘little kids’ side of the gym (about 90 feet) across the waiting room to the ‘big kids’ side. From there he normally walks 2/3 of the way through, cutting through the offices to his mat with all of his stuff. For a little guy who wasn’t used to standing for more than 5 minutes at a time, this 220 feet is enough of a workout for him.

Last Tuesday, he took a different route, he did his indoor lap first, and then decided to go outside. This time he went out the back door and just kept on going. Down the sidewalk he went around the outside of the building (150 ft) around the corner another full length of the building (100 ft) to the front side and down to the car. (125 ft.) In 15 minutes he gained more yards than any Buckeye has in a single game this year, (and we’re all Buckeye fans.)

Somehow, I think he knows that coming up in three weeks (Oct. 11) is the annual Autism Awareness walk around OSU’s campus. Although he does not have autism, several family members and friends (who are probably reading) do, and we all want to help out where ever we can. The walk is about a mile, and even though we’re not going to make Nathan do the whole thing on his own, I’m sure he’ll want to get some steps in to do his part as well.

Not to take anything away from this site, but Nathan has his own page and sponsorship opportunities on the main page if anyone wants to help out. If anyone else is planning on walking, let us know and we’ll see if we can meet you there. We’ve come a long way this year, and we still have a long way to go. Who knows? Next year, maybe…just maybe, all three of us will be pounding the pavement the whole way, helping out a good cause.

Note: If the link to Nathan's page doesn't show up from the link, go under the blue Donate tab to Sponsor a Walker, enter his name and click the search button. The link will show up in the box below the search box.

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