Let Me Tell You About a Boy...

Bravery looks different sometimes.

Let me tell you about a boy.

A boy who at thirteen years old shows more bravery than most adults I know.

But his bravery looks different so most overlook it.

He has very few words. Not much for conversation. But his eyes…they tell a story.

If you listen to him. Patiently. If you don’t rush him. And wait. He will tell you. If you don’t talk over him. Or speak for him.

He will tell you how he hears things louder than you. And smells the faintest smells. And sees colors far brighter than most.

He feels the smoothness of the floor on his feet. And the scratchy fabric of a couch. He knows when it’s going to rain. He adores when the snow falls.

And if he turns his ear into the wind, he hears things that you and I cannot. He loves the wind. He even smells like it. Like he’s just climbed the biggest mountain.

We had a party last week. A party at the cabin.

New people. A new place.

It’s taken us nearly thirteen years to figure out that for him to be successful…for our family to be successful…we need to host.

The party started at 1 pm. He woke me up at 4:30 am the day of. Excited. Using his finger to tell me how many hours until the party started.

Eventually we set a timer. He was just too excited and needed to see the numbers counting down.

He swam.

He danced.

He hugged.

He high fived.

He sat amidst a crowd of people at a table. The noise not bothering him. The chaos making him smile.

Cooper was the happiest I have ever seen him. In fact, at one point, my not so emotional husband looked at me with tears in his eyes and said… ‘I think this might be the best day of Cooper’s life.’

Let me tell you something. Something realer than real. As a mom to three other children, I know when they are happy. Because they tell me. But with Cooper, it’s different.

It’s hard to always know. And so often his joy overlaps with his anxiety, the latter one winning out.

Knowing when someone is happy is a gift. One that I long for.

At the end of the night, he watched the fireworks from the kitchen window. He covered his ears. And squinted his eyes. And held my hand.

He’s never watched the fireworks from a window before. But see, he’s been preparing for months. Practicing on YouTube. He clapped and cheered and hid and ran and repeated.

It was a big day for him. A brave day.

Thank you all for being here with us and learning alongside us.

Kate

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A huge thank you to Project Outreach Gulf Coast for having me as a keynote speaker in Mobile, Alabama.

Project Outreach Gulf Coast (POGC) is a unique organization in many ways. They believe in spreading disability awareness, acceptance, and understanding throughout the community. Project Outreach Gulf Coast is committed to building relationships between students with disabilities and their nondisabled peers for the betterment of both groups. We hope to inspire a domino effect by doing whatever it takes to open the eyes of our community and the world to seeing that people with disabilities are more like you than different.

Hands down the most amazing organization ever. I wish we could bring this to Minnesota!

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For folks who are local to me, (Minnesota, Wisconsin) we have added two more in-person support groups to the calendar! Also, for members of my subscriber group, Coop’s Troops, we have many events coming up! A sibling swim event with Sawyer, Harbor, and Wynnie. Following that is our third annual Hastings Pool Rental. It’s our most favorite event of the year with nearly 100 families coming. In September we have our annual Coop’s Troop picnic, and we are hoping to add a trunk-or-treat this year as well as Friendsgiving. So many fun events!