Six years, four months, and twenty-seven days ago Matt had a brain hemorrhage and our lives were forever altered. In the beginning I wavered between feeling that surely someday Matt would return to his old self, and deep, dark fear that surely he never would be the same again. It was a rollercoaster of emotion that I happily stepped off of years ago. While there will always be a part of us that pines for the ‘old Matt’, and hopes for complete healing…most of the time we can’t help but be amazed out how GOOD things have turned out for us. Matt has come so far over the past few years – SO far…
I thought I might spend some time going through old milestones and memories, but they've pretty much all been mentioned on here already. And really, this post would probably end up sounded pretty braggy – and you know how I hate to be braggy. However, last weekend Matt did something so completely unexpected and so wonderfully HUGE for him that it pretty much deserves its own post…he went sledding.
Our friends Brian & Emily recently moved to an acreage with a few rolling hills. They’d been out last weekend enjoying our first real significant snowfall with their daughters and I commented on how fun it looked. We planned to spend Super Bowl Sunday at their house for the game, so they invited us to bring along our snow gear in case we wanted to give it a go. Naturally, I was game – but Matt was more hesitant. He figured he’d watch or something and insisted he didn’t need to bring a change of clothes because HE wasn’t going to get wet. Arriving on the farm however, it didn’t take long for us all to decide we should take advantage of the opportunity to go out and check out the hill for ourselves. And so we did! Brian offered to pull Matt along on the toboggan to the ‘back forty’ where the hills are…and Matt agreed. I was somewhat stunned…and incredibly impressed with his willingness to give it a go.
Of course, we ALL laughed good and hard when we quickly realized that Matt’s entire bottom half was going to be completely snow covered and wet before we even reached the hill. But even this did not deter him, or dampen his good spirits. 
We took turns going up and down the hill – Matt and I went together on the big toboggan twice…and at the end of each happy, exhilarating run we all pitched in to help pull Matt back up the hill.
Laughing and panting all the way. Matt was such a good sport – I couldn’t believe it. And thankfully Brian and he are similar in size so we could borrow a clean, dry pair of pants to put on after! We spent the rest of the evening enjoying the game with our friends, but inside I couldn’t help feeling how huge this day had been to us. My friend Jami said the other day something about how you know when your heart smiles??? Well – this is exactly how I felt that day, and still feel, actually, thinking on it. It was just such a shining example of true friendship; acceptance, trust, and love. We were both humbled by Brian and Emily’s nonchalance about doing it…I know it wasn’t easy to lug him out there. It meant so much to us both that they were willing to do it…and it meant so much to me that Matt was too.
I know that Matt will likely not enjoy all the freedoms he once did with his physical limitations, but I rejoice at all the ways we’re finding to overcome them! Something as simple and seemingly insignificant as sledding was just so huge to us. But Emily put it best when she said that hopefully we’ll have so many other fun adventures that we’ll laugh someday that sledding was once such a big deal. I couldn’t agree more!! I celebrate how big this was for us now…and can’t wait for the day when we all agree…it ain’t no big deal!
I thought I might spend some time going through old milestones and memories, but they've pretty much all been mentioned on here already. And really, this post would probably end up sounded pretty braggy – and you know how I hate to be braggy. However, last weekend Matt did something so completely unexpected and so wonderfully HUGE for him that it pretty much deserves its own post…he went sledding.
Our friends Brian & Emily recently moved to an acreage with a few rolling hills. They’d been out last weekend enjoying our first real significant snowfall with their daughters and I commented on how fun it looked. We planned to spend Super Bowl Sunday at their house for the game, so they invited us to bring along our snow gear in case we wanted to give it a go. Naturally, I was game – but Matt was more hesitant. He figured he’d watch or something and insisted he didn’t need to bring a change of clothes because HE wasn’t going to get wet. Arriving on the farm however, it didn’t take long for us all to decide we should take advantage of the opportunity to go out and check out the hill for ourselves. And so we did! Brian offered to pull Matt along on the toboggan to the ‘back forty’ where the hills are…and Matt agreed. I was somewhat stunned…and incredibly impressed with his willingness to give it a go.
Of course, we ALL laughed good and hard when we quickly realized that Matt’s entire bottom half was going to be completely snow covered and wet before we even reached the hill. But even this did not deter him, or dampen his good spirits. 
We took turns going up and down the hill – Matt and I went together on the big toboggan twice…and at the end of each happy, exhilarating run we all pitched in to help pull Matt back up the hill.
Laughing and panting all the way. Matt was such a good sport – I couldn’t believe it. And thankfully Brian and he are similar in size so we could borrow a clean, dry pair of pants to put on after! We spent the rest of the evening enjoying the game with our friends, but inside I couldn’t help feeling how huge this day had been to us. My friend Jami said the other day something about how you know when your heart smiles??? Well – this is exactly how I felt that day, and still feel, actually, thinking on it. It was just such a shining example of true friendship; acceptance, trust, and love. We were both humbled by Brian and Emily’s nonchalance about doing it…I know it wasn’t easy to lug him out there. It meant so much to us both that they were willing to do it…and it meant so much to me that Matt was too.
I know that Matt will likely not enjoy all the freedoms he once did with his physical limitations, but I rejoice at all the ways we’re finding to overcome them! Something as simple and seemingly insignificant as sledding was just so huge to us. But Emily put it best when she said that hopefully we’ll have so many other fun adventures that we’ll laugh someday that sledding was once such a big deal. I couldn’t agree more!! I celebrate how big this was for us now…and can’t wait for the day when we all agree…it ain’t no big deal!
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