Did your Mother ever say to you 'If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times....'? Did you ever wonder what it meant? In Mums' case, it was an expression of frustration. But let me say, you don't know frustration until you have a child with a disability.
This illustration is probably an appropriate visual. A neverending staircase, going round and round in circles, leaving you feeling like you're going nowhere.
When you have a child with a disaability, you learn that everyone's first answer is 'no'. And it doesn't matter what the question is.
Some questions we've asked that have been met with a no are:
"Can he play a sport?"
"Can he join in with the other kids?"
"Can he join your acting class/bowling league/football club?"
"Can we have a different sort of wheelchair?"
"Is there somewhere for our son to socialise with members of the opposite sex?"
It's all no-no-no.
What we've learned over 21 years and some few months, is that sometimes it's a case of doing one thing a thousand times to get the result we need. Whether it's making one phone call a thousand times to the same person, or the same phone call to a thousand different people, it seems to take that to make things happen.
After what seems like a thousand thousand phone calls, letters, emails and conversations, our son finally achieved some funding to live independently.
After nearly a thousand more, he is now setting up a bowling team of his own.
And I guess it'll take another thousand to help him find a life partner..his next dream.
As the Chinese proverb says... The journey of a lifetime begins with but a single step.
Many, many steps, a thousand thousand things done a thousand thousand thousand times.
It's all worth it in the end.
