I'm Attending the SACERMUSANTSSATE!

It's funny how life changes you. When you're a teen, all you care about is the latest fashion and gossip. (Unless you were me, in which case you'd spend all your free time in the stable, or in the woods.) When you become a parent, your focus suddenly shifts to things like bottle vs. breast, or cloth vs. disposable, or jarred vs. homemade. Things that didn't matter to you suddely have taken on front-and-center priority. Things that you didn't even know about are now what you must have and do. (Hello, Boppy Pillow. How easy you made life after your invention.)

After 3 kids, I saw my life taking on a pattern. As we planned our fourth, I was looking far down that road ahead, seeing us with teens. Watching our family grow and mature. Imagining the future we saw in our heads. And then we realized that we weren't going to be walking down that straight road but instead turning at the crossroads. The destination is the same, we just got to take a detour in life. It's not better or worse, just different. Being one that relishes in back roads and scenic routes, I'm not complaining. But once again, life has changed us.

Now, instead of focusing on our growing family and the Next Big Step (whatever that may be), we're learning and growing in ways we never dreamed about before. I have learned, over the past 7 years, what Early Intervention is, and have experienced OT, PT, and ST through my son. We're in the MHMR category which qualifies us for things like IEPs and TSS's and wraparound services. And because of his lack of speech we've also been introduced into the world of AAC devices.

I know it's a lot of unexplained random letters, and words without meaning to the general public. If you want explanations, I'll be glad to tell you. But most likely you either already know or just don't care, which is my point. We've been changed by our youngest son. We've grown to become interested in things that we didn't even know existed, and now are part of our everyday world.

And that explains why I'm super excited about this.

The Sixth Annual Center of Excellence for Remote and Medically Under-Served Areas/National Telerehabilitation Service System Assistive Technology Exposition.

I'm going to be there for an all day conference. And it's going to rock. Seven years ago I wouldn't have understood many of the words in that title as they related to each other, nor would I have cared enough to try to dechipher them. But today? Seven years later? I'm all over that kind of stuff. I'm like a special needs geek, and loving every minute of it.

This is certainly not the life I envisioned when I dreamed of becoming a parent. But it's funny how life takes twists and turns unexpected, and we realize how much better it is than what we originally wanted. God is good that way.

(And who the heck names an expo that? What kind of PR person do they have working for them? Geesh.)