The Never-Empty Nest.

Tuesdays Corbin has speech therapy.  Brian and I go and we stay in the waiting room (though now we get to hang out in the office since I'm an employee there).  He packs his iPad and is giddy with excitement that he gets to watch a movie on it for an hour.  I cherish the time to just read a magazine.  Just relax and fill my head with nonsense.

Usually I make mental lists of things I want to buy, but then never buy.  Or make notes of an easy exercise routine that I also never do.  Today was another story.

I picked up a copy of a happy looking Good Housekeeping and ended up being sucked into a story about a family with two adult children with Fragile-X syndrome.  My hour a week that I cherish to not think about anything too important turned into a sob-fest.  For real, I had tears in my eyes.  I was very thankful I was tucked away in the office away from the prying eyes of other parents.

The Never-Empty Nest.  That's what the title of the story was.  That should give you an idea right there of why I was crying.  Yes, the story was beautiful in a way.  The love the mother has for her children is so touching and so real, especially the part of the story where she says that she'll listen to the same verse in a song 87 times back-to-back because she wants to give them happiness while she knows she can.  She doesn't know if their future will be happy, when she is gone or unable to care for them, so she wants to make sure their present is as great as it can be.  I warned you- tearjerker!

It's nice to see stories like this popping up, even if it makes me face my own demons and fears.  I really am frightened about the future of our children (not just mine) as the numbers continue to climb for those who have disabilities, not just autism.  For parents like the mother in this story, and for myself, there are no acceptable placements for our children.  It's immensely scary.

But for now I will take advice from the mother in the story and steal her mantra- "I never think past dinner time."