Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Background Music

Last week we got the amazing opportunity to take part in a camp for children with disabilities and their siblings. The camp is run by Pony Power Therapies and it gives the kids time to ride horses, interact with them and do different farm activities. Parents also take part in a program with the horses. 
To me what made this week so special was that the kids there were not defined by their differences as they are in most of their everyday life. Each family was unique but when we entered our morning circle there was one common goal to be achieved by everyone. There are so many activities that Tommy has done before. Normally after I tell whomever is in charge that he has type 1 diabetes there is a face of fear. In my head I laugh because it's typically the same look of panic or fear followed by, "but your staying right, I don't have to do anything".  I appreciate the way they feel, they don't want to harm Tommy but they don't realize he's not that breakable.
 At this camp last week every family had there own troubles, their own journeys and no one had that look of panic, no fear someone would break. The kids rode their horses and you could feel the pride that was shown in their smiles. 
For the first time in 4 years I felt like we were on a disease vacation. Obviously I still monitored him, his diabetes is the background music of our lives. The music is always playing, I'm used to it now. I know each of the families at camp had their own background music playing too but I think most would agree the music wasn't as loud as it normally is. Each day was joy. My kids miss "their horses", they miss the amazing staff who I can't say enough good things about, and I miss the sense of community they were able to foster in 4 short days. 
During that week Tommy didn't complain about site changes, he didn't complain about his HGH injections, he seemed ok with the background music. I think the difference was for the first time he didn't feel like everyone was looking at him as being different, he was just another kid excited to ride their horse. 
I took a lot of mental snapshots in those 4 days. The joy on their face as they rode, the pride they felt when they walked their horse in the ring and their sense of accomplishment when they were done grooming their horse. When the background music gets a little too loud I will flip through those amazing snapshots!