After all was done, Crys' dad asked us kids to go see one of his friends at an assisted living home. His name's Billy, he's 74 years old, and he's been living with cerebral palsy his whole life. For the past 16 years, Bob (her dad) has been going to visit him there on a regular basis. For the past 6 years, no one from his own family has had contact with him or come to see him. What's amazing is that beneath the body he's trapped in, you can plainly see his mind is fine. You can see the sparkle in his eyes. I can't even begin to express the emotions running through me just being there this morning. He was so glad to have visitors and proud to show us off to the staff. Even though my heart was so sad seeing how he lived, it really did make my week to be there with him... even for a short time.
As we were walking out, nearly everyone (staff and residents) wished us a Merry Christmas with big smiles. You could tell not many new people were ever there. Watching Bob talk to Billy and seeing everyone else who lived there, really put me in a pretty strong check. Family is everything... and by family I mean the people who are most important to us... including our actual families. Personally, I lose track more often that not. Whatever's in front of me is my focus. Today hit me pretty hard, but it's jolting me to find more time for my own family. I'll never be able to get you to feel what I felt today, but I can leave you with this: Cassidy has created a brilliant family of friends in our teachers, our parents, our community, and our kids. Our own families have all rallied around us in support of this new family we're making, too. I guess if there's anything to get from this posting, without sounding too much like one of those inspirational Power Point emails from your forward-happy friend, it's that we should take extra steps to not take each other for granted. You guys mean the world to us... our Cassidy family, our friend family, and our family family... in-laws and all. Go call your mother.
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