How I Know For Sure My Kids With Disabilities Will Have the Best Year

This year, I’ve decided my kids will have the most awesome year ever! They have already had the most amazing first few days of the year that I can remember. At the end of the year, I will look back and probably cry when I see just how awesome 2018 has been for my boys.

I know for sure that 2018 will be the most awesome year ever because I will make it a priority to focus on the positives and capture all the awesomeness they do or that happens to them. To do that, I will go as high tech as possible to make this effective: two large glass jars, some colorful paper and some pens. I will diligently write down all the wonderful things that my kids do or they experience and place them in the jars every evening and watch them gradually fill up.

My sons have autism and we have some challenges. I know there will be times when at the end of the day I will struggle to find something to write. Parenting can be hard some days. I know there will be meltdowns, people will be unkind and say ignorant things, there will be plates left on the table, beds not made, fights between the boys, some outright refusals to do as I ask, the kids will be sick. It’s life.

But I believe the monsoon rains of awesomeness will also come and balance out the drought. Days when more than one note will be added to each glass jar of awesome at the end of the day.

Each of my boys frequently does some incredible things and has amazing experiences — and although I am super impressed and really moved in the moment — life has a way of taking over and within a few days, I usually forget all but the biggest of them. I’m just an ordinary one who shares the same experience all parents go through.

In 2018, my kids are going to have the most awesome year ever because I will have my jars full of colorful notes I can reach into any time and remember just how great a year they are having. This year will be the most awesome year ever for my sons because I will have reminders of their wonderful achievements.

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Getty image by nastenkapeka