Reflecting Upon Eight Years With Ben

First let me thank Above Average Joe once again for passing The Blogger Reflection Award along to us. The award is given to bloggers “who have been an encouragement, a source of love, impacted you in some way, and have been a Godly example to you. Bloggers who, when you reflect on them you get a sense of pride and joy…of knowing them and being blessed by them.”

I don't think I can express a better or more descriptive picture of my son than those words that some blogger somewhere in the world attached to this award. And it is so very appropriate for this special day. Just like Joe I'm bending the rules again and keeping this shiny bling all for ourselves on Ben's birthday.

These past eight years have flown by. With all of the tests, doctor visits, hospital stays, therapies, diaper changes, and everything else we've had to endure as a family it would seem like our time with Ben has been an eternity. On the contrary, endurance has only been a small part of the equation.

We do realize how it must seem to those on the outside looking in. Are those just words we repeat for our own sanity when we say life with Ben is a pleasure and a gift? There is no doubt that life has changed dramatically for us since October 2, 1999. That was the day me, Joan, and Jessie in the words of our geneticist "were hit by lightening." And just like a survivor of any catastrophic event we appreciate the ordinary, the mundane, the routine, the very seconds of our days more than we could ever imagine on October 1st of that year.

To us Ben is as ordinary as a flower in the spring or a sunny day in the summer. Ben is the array of color on a mountainside in the fall. He is the glowing embers in the fireplace on a cold winter's night. If there is nothing extraordinary about those metaphors then Ben is nothing special at all. He is what he is and that is acceptable to his loved ones.

And upon even further reflection nothing has changed while everything has changed. We continue to work and to play, to laugh and to weep, to sleep and to eat, to make our time here on Earth as pleasurable as we can. I just don't think life could be any better without Ben being the way he is.

So choose to believe our words or not. I'd like to think that on day number 365 of blogging we've given you at least a glimpse into the joy we have by living with our exceptional son and brother. Happy Birthday, my son! I pray there are many, many more to follow!