Chewymom

Many many months ago, an opportunity was presented for my two high-school boys (DS16 and DS15) to attend a youth conference for our denomination called RYM. We were excited to be able to send them with lots of other kids from our church, but we were also faced with a dilemma. How could we accomplish both the goal of sending DS16 and of allowing DS15 to have a fun week with his friends?

We decided that the best way to accomplish both was to ask the various boys in the youth group to each take a half-day and be DS16’s helper. The boys all agreed, and I made a schedule and a list of ways to help DS16. Make sure he gets to meetings. Make sure he doesn’t wander out of meetings. Help him cross the highway (!) to get to the beach. Make sure he doesn’t drift along in the surf and lose sight of the group! That’s a lot for a high school boy to keep up with–it’s like having a kid brother along on a high school trip. I knew I was asking a lot, and frankly, it made me nervous. We do have adults down there with our kids, but they cannot devote all of their time and attention to my son alone.

Two days before the boys left on their trip, I learned that my niece would also be attending with her church group. Awesome! Another set of eyes on DS16. A set of eyes that love him as much as DS15, that would feel a responsibility to be sure he is safe. I breathed a sigh of relief and thanked God for providing yet another person to help DS16 enjoy this retreat. But it gets better.

This morning, just after dropping the boys off at the church, I called my sis-in-law–the one whose daughter was also attending the retreat. She said, “You won’t believe this, but my DH is going on the trip!” Folks, this is one of my DH’s identical triplet brothers (also known as the non-blogging FatTriplet3). How cool is this?? Now DS16 has arranged helpers from his youth group, his brother, his cousin, and his uncle all watching out for him. I know his Uncle FT3 will have an eye on DS16 and will love and watch over him just like his own Daddy would. Not to mention that our youth group will get a kick out of meeting DH’s identical triplet uncle!

Not only does our Heavenly Father have his omniscient eye of love on my guys, but He has provided many earthly eyes as well. As a result, I am relaxing this evening (with a glass of wine, even), confident that my older two boys are safe and happy down at the beach.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 9th, 2007 at 8:49 pm and is filed under Down syndrome, Mommy Musings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.