Swimming Lessons

Tommy and Jain love taking swimming lessons.  Usually Tommy will only wear pajamas and MAKING  Jain's hair (her word) is not her favorite thing. But for lessons they are fast at putting on their suits and Jain literally runs to the mirror so I can pull her hair back.

Once we get there, I park up front (perk of being handicapped) and they race up to the doors where they know to wait for slow walking mom. They fight over who gets to push the magic button to make the doors open by themselves and then they race again to their class, only pausing long enough to kick off their flip flops and drop their towels on a chair.

Luckily, Aleq chose soccer over swimming (only one activity at a time!!) so he stays with me.  It is really pretty dangerous for me to be around water, the ground is often wet and slippery, and there are lots of kids walking around me so walking there is not such a good thing. But Aleq stays right by me, holding my hand and saying excuse me to those who don't hear my quiet voice. He even offered to walk over to take pictures of the kids in their classes.

When class is over, we wait for the crowd to clear out so I won 't have so many obstacles. Again, Aleq is invaluable. He helps keep Tommy and Jain close and then helps me walk back out.

What other 9 year old takes on this kind of responsibility?  I can and have done it alone but I feel so much safer with him there. I am very careful to rarely ask for his help and often act tougher than I feel so he will go play and just be a kid. But he has seen how his dad treats me and just seems to believe that when Robert is not around, it's his role. He has a huge heart.

I wonder how long his helping me will last. Will he be less inclined to do so as he gets to be a teenager? Will there come a time when all my kids will be embarrassed by me? I hope not.

We have tried to make the effects of the stroke seem "every day" and even laugh at some things like my dancing or singing. But they see my tears of frustration and humiliation when I lose my balance and fall, notice that I can't write to fill out papers, or are curious when they see me pulling my face into odd expressions as I exercise my weak muscles. They realize that I am different and that other moms aren't strokey.

But we have all gained so much from all of this. When Aleq told me that I had taught him to never give up, my heart soared. I hope they see that Mommy and Daddy never gave up and that Heavenly Father has been watching over our little family and performing miracles in our behalf. I hope they can see that although I am different, we are so blessed to be together here. I hope they feel the love for them that kept me and continues to keep me fighting.

And I hope they see how great handicapped parking is!


Ana Jain in the water and Aleq's finger over the lens. :-)




That's Tommy smiling and a great shot of Aleq's finger!



Jain's reaction to the camera.

 

My sweet helper.