The Gift That Keeps On Giving

     I have already written about our visit to camp and how amazed and impressed we were by what we saw.  How special and incredible it was to see our son there and watch him thrive. When we sent him to HASC it was with the hope that he would have the best summer of his life. I truly did not understand the impact it would continue to have on our every single day.

     The first incredible moment happened when I picked him up from the bus after camp. I stood there and watched the way the counselors hugged him and didn’t want to say goodbye. The way he smiled and laughed and had an expression of pure joy on his face. The smile on his face when he turned to me and said “how many more weeks until I go back to camp?”

     What has been even more amazing is seeing the continual impact that camp has had on him. He is calmer and easier going. He has something to talk about that he loves other than the mail. He has true friends and people who he misses and can’t wait to see again. He has fun games and activities that he picked up at camp that he continues to play at home, things that really keep him occupied, which is definitely something new. He is easier to transition, he started a new school the day he got back from camp and we had almost no issues at all. He adjusted quickly and easily to both the new school and going on the school bus everyday.  He is simply put, happier.

     But the absolute and truly most amazing gift is the counselors and the people who love him. We had the opportunity over the holiday to travel to Israel. My family lives there and so we usually go twice a year. It is not usually an easy trip to make with Yonatan. It is difficult to take him out of his routine and bring him to a place where he really does not have anything to do but eat candy and hit up all of my parents neighbors for ice pops. Usually the entire trip is about survival and making it to the end. Our last trip there, over pesach, was exceedingly difficult and ended in our shigella nightmare (previously well documented in this blog).

     Not this time! This trip was wonderful. Yonatan was calmer and easier to begin with. However, what I truly attribute our amazing trip to are the incredible people who came to spend time with him. Counselors from camp who just wanted a chance to hang out with Yoyo because to them that is an amazing way to spend a day. The boy who is working with adults with special needs this year and came to stay with us to help out, who opened his heart to Yonatan and had a blast with him. Greatest of all, was his counselor who spent most of the holiday with us because he loves my son so completely and adores him.  Watching them together made my heart sing and my lips smile all day long. So instead of two weeks of difficulty and disaster we had a wonderful trip. Our other children got to go places and do fun things; Yonatan learned to ride the bus in Israel and went on the light rail. He actually did things outside of the house, every day, for the first time ever. And every day my husband and I had an opportunity to see the magic of HASC before our eyes as we watched the most incredible 18 year old boy come to hang out with Yonatan during his vacation because that was really all he wanted to do and where he wanted to be. He didn’t come because he thought he had to or because the food was better at our house than in school. He came each day (even on days he wasn’t supposed to) because he just couldn’t stay away. And it was incredible.

     And so, when people ask me if I got a break this simmer and if sending him to camp was good for us I have a new answer. The break I got was not having him out of the house, because I love when he is home. Our break was knowing that for the first time ever our son was someplace where he truly belonged. He was in a place where he was normal and everyone “typical” was actually “non-typical”. What gives me joy about having sent him there is that for the first time in his life I was able to give him unadulterated happiness and joy and an opportunity to be considered perfect as he is. And that is the break my soul needed.