02: zach

This morning I answered some emails, made a few phone calls, typed in a few case notes and decided what I really needed was a nice mid-morning shower to wake myself up. [How awesome is it that I have the kind of job that allows me to work from home, so that break times can be spent in a nice, hot shower? But I digress...] As I headed back to my work space with my glass of water, I stepped over something on the floor. Not unusual in this house, but looking down I realized it was my son's school binder. The one that only two months into the school year is already falling apart and being held together with shiny silver duct tape. The one that has his conduct sheet in it that must be initialed every night. The one with his agenda that requires a parent signature daily. The one holding all of his homework. 

I'm not going to lie. I looked at the stack of paperwork still calling my  name and thought "I do NOT have time for this"... 

But then I imagined him getting into his backpack, realizing this morning that he didn't have it. That sick, sinking feeling of realization that he was going to sit all of his recesses. So of course, wet hair and all, I headed toward his school, binder in hand.

I could have been aggravated, but really, I wasn't. Because all I could think about on the way to the school was how relieved he would be when that binder came walking into his classroom... and he would know... my mom came through for me. I got to be the hero today, and that was pretty cool.

Plus, it's not like I never left my binder (or paperwork, or report, or check book, or other-really-important-thing) at home before.

I keep thinking about that duct-tape repaired binder and the tornadic event that carries it back and forth to school every day. The one who rips holes in the knees of all of his jeans. The one who's bed always looks like a sasquatch spent the night in it with him. He is so different than his neat freak, clothes-has-to-be-just-right sister... and I love that about him!

He's obsessed with video games, but respects the "one hour a night" rule. He wants to play the games the other kids are playing, but doesn't argue with my "I don't think so" look at the video game store. He's a good kid. He has an amazing sense of humor. He loves to torment his sister. He loves to torment me. He also loves to sit next to me on the couch and cuddle. Begs me to rub his back, and his feet, and his face (yes, his face...) and I love that about him!

It's hard to imagine this straight A student was once a little boy who we wondered if he would ever find his words. Hours of speech therapy, patience, and prayer... we can't shut him up now. And I love that about him! 

Today, I am so thankful for my little man, Zachary. I am thankful for the young man he is growing into. I am thankful for the gentle way he holds baby Ty at church, and then the full out heart he plays football with later that same afternoon.  I am thankful for his laugh. I am even thankful for his mess. And days that he leaves his binder on the floor.

And I am so, so thankful for those times when he says "thank you Mommy".

Like tonight, when he told me that his binder showed up right before first recess. Just in time.