Roger

This is my mom and my Uncle Roger. Last October I got the chance to take a trip to California with them and my kids. I'll admit we were totally spoiled; they treated us to a trip that included 2 days at Sea World, a day at Knot's Berry Farm, a day at Disneyland, and the very best of all.... 2 days at the beach. We had a blast! The trip was great and my kids and I made so many memories--in fact we're still drink out of our Sea World cups on an almost daily basis and we frequently sing the Shamu song. But the fun and the memories aren't what I want to talk about. That trip made me look at my life, my children, my mom, my Uncle Roger and especially my grandma in a whole different light and I will be forever grateful for the experience.

I'm sure you noticed in the picture that Roger is handicapped. When he was five years old, he was hit by a car while he was walking home from school. He almost died, but instead he has lived the last 49 years with Cerebral Palsy. His road to recovery was slow and hard, but he had great cutting edge medical care and a mom who wouldn't accept anything but improvement from him and siblings who cared enough to work with him for hours on end with some tedious tasks.

My whole life Roger has been a fixture in it. He's always been part of our family, it's always just been normal to have someone around with disabilities. I never really even gave it much thought. But spending that week with him now that I am a mother opened my eyes to so many things and made me appreciate what I have and the women who have loved him and raised him his whole life. Not only that but being there with him and my 5 year old son made me draw constant comparisons to where he was and wonder what might have been were it not for that fateful day. I was overcome with emotion a couple of times during the week when I saw him and his broken body engaging in simple tasks that I take for granted all the time I was most touched by what he has had to endure on the nights that we knelt together for family prayers. My mom, my kids and I would quickly kneel and then watch as Roger slowly lowered his body to the ground and then bowed his head and body at an awkward angle. I realized so vividly on those evenings that his ability to have a normal life was stripped from him the day of his accident and it made me sad, really sad. But being sad doesn't do much for anyone, so instead of getting sad, I was very introspective on this trip. It was such a rewarding experience for me to get to know Roger all over again now that I am a mom. I can understand so much more of what he and his family had to go through and I can appreciate what my grandma has been able to teach him. Roger is such an amazing individual with SO MUCH love to give and I am so grateful that I have been able to be around him my whole life to learn so many lessons. But even more so I am grateful to have spent a week with him getting to know him all over again and to really see him in a whole different light.