As much as I didn’t feel like we’d ever be ready for our weekend in the mountains, it was such a blessing! My addled brain was able to muster together enough coherence to pack nearly everything that KayKay and I needed to go on the youth fundraiser portion. And Super Dad and LuLu joined us Saturday night.

LuLu spent an exciting day on Saturday watching sheep being sheared, wool being spun into yarn and soap being made. By the time we hooked up about 3:30, she was napping in the car. KayKay and I had spent an equally exciting day, serving snacks to 80 serious bike riders in the Brasstown Bald Buster Century. (Brasstown Bald is the highest mountain in Georgia…over 4800 feet above sea level.)

After the full day, we ate our fill at an all-you-can-eat seafood buffet and crashed at the rental cabin. It had a super cool flat-screen, so we had family “movie” night. This came as a surprise to me that the kids didn’t want to head into town and find something else to do.

It was a peaceful, quiet, fun evening…topped off by sleeping late and a leisurely walk around the mountain we were staying on.

As we drove home, I tried to remember what was on my “to do” list for the coming week, and couldn’t remember a single item. KayKay commented that it seemed much longer than a weekend, as if we’d taken a mini-vacation. And LuLu was having “the best time ever”.

Then it hit me…for nearly 48 hours none of us really thought about how “special” our family is. All the special needs (save for keeping the med schedule and a few tics here and there), were not center stage of the weekend. It was almost as if we were a “normal” family. (Whatever the heck that means!)

That’s huge for families with special needs kids. We get so caught up in all we have to do to care for our special kids that we rarely get to “lay it down”. And sometimes, even if we do lay it down, we feel guilty or we worry, either because we’ve left the child in someone else’s care, or their happiness and good behaviors are bound to be short-lived.

But the ultimate lesson of surviving the job of parenting special needs kids is to learn to re-frame the situation. So, instead of worrying about how much LuLu would meltdown when it was time to leave, we all just lived in the moment. And it was great!!!

What do I mean by re-framing? Here’s what we’re learning from LuLu’s therapists.
Here's the last time we retreated to the mountains. We really need to do this more often!