Last Saturday night, I took my son to a dance. A local service group periodically hosts dances for the physically and/or mentally handicapped at the recreation center, and when the flyers come out I always ask Kevin if he wants to go. He always says no. This time, he said yes! So we went.
The ballroom was packed, and the populace was assorted, to put it mildly. I hadn't been sure what to expect, but I had thought that everyone would be about high school age, and that wasn't the case. We had one very small boy, kids in high school, and then ages all the way up. There were a few wheelchairs, one walker, and some coke-bottle glasses. In addition to the physical handicaps, most people there had fairly obvious mental handicaps also. But oh boy, could they dance. There was a live band, and it was one hopping place.
We saw a guy from Kevin's Special Olympics team with his girlfriend, and a couple of guys from his class at school, but the others were not anyone we knew. A lot of them looked familiar though, because we've been a part of the handicapped community for a while now, and you run across each other at events, doctor's offices, clinics, and supported job sites. It's like a small town, really.
As I had been doing the dishes at home an hour earlier, I'd found myself getting tearful over this dance. It wasn't lost on me that a few miles away the rest of the senior class was at the prom, in tuxedos and stylish gowns, with professionally dressed hair and nails, and parents lurking in the front hallways to take pictures before their gorgeous children departed for the night. No such rites of passage for Kevin--he had to settle for escorting his dowdy old mom. So I mopped my eyes and straightened my spine and went upstairs to dress up a little.
And truth to tell, we had a fine time. The music was lively, the pretzels were not bad, and the crowd was cheerful, if sometimes oddly attired. Kevin's dancing involves the arms and the head, not the feet (he was happy to let me do all the footwork), but it came with a huge grin and a hug for his girl. We came home when we felt like it and counted it an evening well spent. Not bad, for something that didn't charge admission.
But still, I got a little misty. I'm a mom, and I kind of tend that way. Kevin's rites of passage are just going to be a little different; that's all there is to it. But I try to make them special in their own ways because he is so very special himself. So he wore black, and I wore pink. And we danced.
Love, Spud.
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Favorite verses:
- Prov 30:8-9: Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, `Who is the LORD?' Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.
- Rom 8:38-39: For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
- Ps 119:68: You are good, and what you do is good; teach me your decrees.
- Eph 3:16-19: I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
About Me
- Spud
- I am: A wife, mother, employer and employee, rabid reader, eager Bible studier, cat-lover, toddler-amuser, round person, and have no particular theological category.
2 comments:
Did you get any photos?
That sounds like a lot of fun! I am really glad Kevin agreed to try this new thing.
What's the sponsoring service group?
I understand your getting misty. Life's so not fair, sometimes. I thank God that Kevin's got such a happy disposition. There's a lot he misses out on, and there's no substitute for some of it. But few of the other kids can get such true, deep joy out of changing gears in a Honda!
No photos. Stu was out for the evening, Emily was..well, I don't remember, and I don't even own a camera. Wouldn't remember to use it if I did, which is why I don't. It was put on by the Civitan.
You should have seen the joy at Disney! It was worth it, just for that.
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