Skip to main content

Reflections on a Half-Century



Two months from tomorrow I turn 50.  I have spent some time this week reflecting on that.  Down in our basement, I found my baby book that my mom made.  Given that I am the firstborn, she wrote down in great detail, the first two years of my life.  On the "favorites" page of the baby book, she said my favorite first toy was one of her gravy mixers. Somehow that doesn't surprise me, given how much I love to bake and cook. 
I didn't find any pictures from my first birthday party, but I did find these pictures from when I turned two.


I love the picture on the bottom right, I'm in the background already eating my cake, while my guests had to stand in front of the table and wait! Well, I was the birthday girl after all :) Inside the baby book, I found two pages of notes that my mom had typed up on my "progress" at the end of my second year. Two sentences in particular caught my eye. The first one was, "her negative opinions became quite strong, but if approached gently, she would usually go along with what was asked." That is still pretty much true today, except sometimes even if I am approached gently, I don't always go along with what is asked.  The second sentence, "Cathy is a very cheerful little girl, each night when asked are you happy, she responded, "habby." That also is true today, I try my hardest to be happy for everything I have. One thing I have always known from a young age, was that I wanted to get married and have children.  It took me a long time to find my hubby, but it was well worth the wait.  I am super blessed to have my stepson, Lauren and Dominic. As I sit here and think about the past almost 50 years of my life, in some ways it seems like it's gone by fast.  It's been almost 32 years that I've been out of high school. Yikes, it definitely doesn't feel like it's been that long! I have reconnected with childhood friends on Facebook that I thought I would never hear from again. I have friends that I think of as family. I have many people in my life that support me and my family on a daily basis. I still have both my parents and my siblings.  Unfortunately, I have also lost other special family and friends.  My heart still aches so much for my cousin, who unexpectedly passed a little over two years ago.  We grew up together and I still mourn that loss. Even when there are trying and tough times, I try very hard to be as positive of a person as I can. I try to treat others as I would expect to be treated.  Life is full of different experiences, and I try to learn something from each one. When I look out my window and see a glorious sunrise like this, how can it not make me feel grateful and appreciative for everything that I have??  Every day is a beautiful "gift" that we are given.  I can't wait to see what the next 50 years has in store for me!!



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Those "Steps" to Independence Can Be Hard

We are heading towards 600 orders for Dominic's business. Since our long-term goal for Baked Goods By Dominic is having a "brick-and-mortar" and hire those with disabilities, it is essential and imperative that I continue to teach him all parts of the business. Since I prompted Dominic for so many years for speech, he has become "prompt dependent." What that essentially means is that he will look at me for a prompt, like, "what do you do next?" I do that one a lot. Dominic has been going to a private speech therapist for over ten years and she reminds me often that Dominic usually will know the answer, if I am patient and wait for him. That has been a very hard habit to break! Dominic has an incredible memory, so I put it to the test this morning. I didn't write out the steps, I wanted to see how much he could do completely on his own. We have a customer picking up his order today, but the only thing that had been done is putting the cookies into t...
1 comment
Read more

Why We Pursued Guardianship of our Son with Autism

Last Thursday morning, my husband, Dominic and I went to our county's Probate Court and had Dominic's Guardianship Hearing. My husband and I are Co-Guardians, and we were granted "Partial Guardianship," which means Dominic can make some of his own decisions (future educational and vocational placement options, what to wear and how he wants to spend his free time), but my husband and I will make his medical, health care, legal, contractual and major financial decisions. The subject of Guardianship in the disability "world" has been and continues to be a controversial and divisive topic.  I was a panelist for an Autism Conference this past summer and presented on what it's like to have a child with Autism. Towards the end of my presentation, I mentioned that Dominic had just turned 18 and that we were going through the Guardianship process. When the attendees could ask questions, the first person that went up to the microphone started telling me that I was...
Post a Comment
Read more

Presume Competence

Since we have traveled outside of the United States since Dominic was very small, we have had to get him a Children's Passport every five years. Since his current one expires in February of 2024 and he is now 19, we had to apply for an Adult Passport. I don't know why my husband and I picked Dominic's first day of school and Michigan State University moving in their students, but the appointment was yesterady at 3 p.m. We had gathered all of the documents needed and then went into a special room in the East Lansing Post Office just for Passports. The three of us sat down and the clerk asked Dominic his age. He said, "19." Since we were also getting his picture taken for the Passport, he went into a separate room, where she took a picture of him and then let him look at it to make sure he liked it (it will be his picture for the next 10 years)!  He said he did, so he sat back down with us. The clerk filled out a bit more of the paperwork and then she let Dominic s...
Post a Comment
Read more