I must admit that I never thought that I would be writing that this blog is the sixth in the series that discusses the desirable traits that a person should have that is thinking of adopting a special needs child. The person should have endurance, or staying power, and be willing to be persistent in getting the job done properly. I am going to focus on the challenges of taking our five boys on a trip to illustrate my points.
Our oldest grown son and his family live in San Antonio which is about a four hour drive away from our home. When we had newborn Caleb and two and a half year old Tommy, we decided to pack up and go see them. Tommy was subject to fits and rages when he first came to live with us. Just preparing for the trip, triggered a good deal of chaos.
We still did not know exactly what his medical condition involved, although the scar down the middle of his chest indicated that he had a bad heart. In addition, we had no idea what his medications were about, we just knew when to give them to him. Three hours down the road, we realized that with all the drama that was going on when we packed the car that we had left his medicine in Houston. Seeing our indecisiveness caused another rage. We called our son and told him that we were turning around and heading back to Houston.
Over a year later, we tried to go to San Antonio again. This time we had five boys, including newborn Isaiah. We barely made it San Antonio. We had a two bedroom suite. That night, it became necessary to put one of the boys to bed and let him “cry it out”. Apparently, the people in the room next to us kept calling the front desk because a child was crying and saying, “Somebody please help me.” We quickly realized that we were not ready for a hotel. We had reservations for two nights, but we left the next morning. No one had slept much and we decided that the trip was not going to be fun.
This past summer, we were invited to have a wonderful week at South Padre Island. We had a large four bedroom condo and we managed well. The boys are older, no one throws fits very often any more and it was fun.
The problem was the seven hour drive. By the time we arrived, Nancy and I were nervous wrecks (no pun intended). One child in particular was very loud and obnoxious for the entire trip. If you include the normal trials and tribulations that anyone would expect being in a van with five boys, ages two through eight, the drive was not fun. We actually divided the return trip by stopping halfway home and spending the night. That didn’t help much.
Suffice it to say that we are a long way from trying to load the family up and drive 1000 miles. I guess we have proven that we have staying power by even attempting any of these trips. I keep telling Nancy that we ought to rent a really fancy motor home for our next trip. I will gladly drive if she will keep order in the back. She doesn’t like my idea.
Related Blogs:
Adoptive Parenting Traits, Part 2
Adoptive Parenting Traits, Part 3
Adoptive Parenting Traits, Part 4
Adoptive Parenting Traits, Part 5