One hard-working little boy

April 18, 2010

I’m one of those people who believes that God will never give us more than we can handle. However, I do think that we can overburden ourselves with the choices we make, activities we choose to participate in, and extra projects we think we need to be involved with.

I wrote in the second half of last week that our schedule was going to be filling up fast again. Four days of school, three days of treadmill PT (for three more weeks,) two hours with his college PT student, speech therapy, gymnastics, swimming, equine-assisted therapy, OT every other week, (and a partridge in a pear tree.)

As we gathered together heading over to swimming (through a new construction zone on campus, blocking the way we’d normally go) we started doubting how long we could keep this pace up. Is Nathan really getting the most out of all these activities, and are we spending what money have, in the best way for him?

Walking towards the natatorium, we had come to the consensus that this would probably be the last quarter for swimming for a little while. He seemed to smile his way through it, but was he really gaining much from the experience? It was then that we learned that I had apparently made a grave mistake. I thought swimming started at 6:15 instead of 6:30. Most people would think better early-than late, but I don’t think any of those people ever had to keep Nathan away from the water for 15 extra minutes.

We were very excited to see that we’d have the same helper as last quarter, but Nathan didn’t seem to notice at first, he just wanted to find anyone who would let get in the water. By the time the session actually started, his pulse was racing and he giggled and smiled as the waves surrounded him once again. I’m not sure if his feet touched the pool floor the first 15 minutes as he was one happy little guy. We didn’t know how he’d make it through the other half-hour with the energy he had exerted thus far. Needless to say, he fell asleep on the ride home.

Thursday was the start of horseback riding. This was the source of a lot of core-muscle building last year, and we wondered how much we had lost over the winter and how long it would take to rebuild this year. We watched as the horses warmed up, circling around the arena. As they got close to our observation corner, Nathan again would smile and pump his legs, letting us know he was ready to go.

This year, Nathan is on a new horse, Lorenzo, with new helpers (except for me,) but I don’t know a truer phrase than how happy he was to be back in the saddle again. The time on the horse would be a little less, being the first week and just starting up again, but it was soon obvious that Nathan was picking up pretty close to where he left off, and wanting more. There were long periods when he would need very little support from either side-walker, and he was holding his head up, looking around at everything, like he always does.

There’s no doubt that we push Nathan, and he’s always so good to respond with every bit of energy he has. Several times this week, we didn’t think Nathan was feeling his best, but that didn’t stop him from leaving everything out there with all of his activities. There were several 3+ hour naps this week (when he could find that much time between activities) and he’d crash in bed whatever time he made it to bed.

Our goal has never been to overwork our son, or to force him into activities that he doesn’t enjoy, just because we think it’s for his own good. We wouldn’t think of burdening him with anything else, and we promise not to load up more than he’s got right now. Nathan is our daily reminder where there’s a will, God will provide a way, and together great things are on the horizon.

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