Travelocity

One day my dad received two phone calls within two hours from two of his children. Richard and Julia had both totaled their cars in two different states. Ever since then if one of us calls crying, it makes him crazy. Once I called him from Julia's phone on April Fools' Day and pretended to be Julia and while feigning a distraught and troubled voice, I cried, "Dad?! I've been in an accident!" How mean is that? I quickly followed it with a loud and gleeful, "APRIL FOOLS!!!"

So this morning when I called him crying, I quickly told him the reason so he wouldn't have to worry that anyone was injured, dead, or missing. It was for a silly reason- I never actually paid for the flight I was supposed to board with my two daughters tomorrow afternoon. I found and selected the flight the night before we left for Idaho, and I thought I paid for it, but apparently I didn't. After searching my email for a confirmation, calling Travelocity, and verifying with my credit card company that no charges would be made, I'm convinced I made a really stupid mistake late that evening on the 15 of August by not clicking that last button. That last button is always hard for me to click. It's painful to click the button that's going to withdraw $400 from your account.

Well, after an hour on the phone with a call center worker from overseas who calls himself, "Gary", I gave up on Travelocity and tried Hotwire instead. It took "Gary" five minutes to locate the Kansas City airport on his list. When he was reading off one of the flight options, he told me the arrival time was "one three PM." I said, "you mean, 1:30 PM?" Him: "No, one three PM." Me: "Oh, you mean 1:03 PM." Him: "Yes ma'am, one three PM." Yikes. Instead of flying out tomorrow, we fly out on Sunday morning for only $50 more a ticket than we were planning on paying before. So I feel lucky.

Anyway, this day obviously got off to a weird start. And I've been trying to think of the bright side of being here a few more days. Maybe I can convince Bobby to come home from St. Louis for Friday night and Saturday. Maybe I can actually take the time to blog about our trip to Idaho/Utah. Maybe I can get some more pictures up on the walls and finish my quilt (which is SO close by the way- I love it!)

I stumbled across a blog today that had posted this inspiring video. Please take a few minutes to watch it if you can. I was so touched by the love and understanding this 13 year old girl has for her little brother David who has Downs syndrome.




I feel a little overwhelmed with all the attention that special needs kids/adults are getting with everything that's going on in politics and the media, with Obama's stand on abortion, and Palin's son, and that movie Tropic Thunder that came out. The low expectations that our society places on individuals with disabilities saddens me. One of the most important things I've learned about Franny through our experience is that I can expect a heck of a lot from her. She has surpassed my expectations enough in the recent years that I've learned to always set them higher. I remember her consultant Melinda saying once that whenever she starts with a new kid, whoever the kid is and no matter what their behaviors are or how nonverbal they may be at the time, she always assumes that child can be taught to speak and use words. If something comes up later that will stand in the way, like apraxia, or some other diagnosis in addition to autism, then that's fine, but she always starts out believing they can be taught. As a parent, I was so impressed and inspired by that. I think it's influenced the way I feel about Franny and what she is capable of.