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Jamie proves to us everyday that he is a highly intelligent, growing and perfect child who takes everything in and has a lot of thoughts and feelings about his daily life experiences. One special thing that my husband and I love about Jamie is his innocent nature and his warm attitude towards all people. When we were on vacation in California we were at a private club. Jamie wanted to go in the hot tub and there was an elderly man in there. Jamie got in and scooted around the large hot tub, all the while looking around and slowly moving until he was sitting right next to the elderly man. For a few seconds, there were no words exchanged, but a comfortable silence between a sixty-year old and a six-year old. Then the older man said, “Pretty warm.” “Yeah,” Jamie replied. Jamie began to ask a series of pointed and honest questions about what he observed (i.e., the man's hearing aid) and the gentleman responded without offense to any of Jamie's inquisitive observations. It was like they had done this a hundred times before and were just running into each other again. Those moments may be overlooked by most and seem almost trivial; however, moments like those will never be lost on us.
As we become adults, we develop boundaries and become guarded. Jamie's innocence and true awareness in caring for other people is astounding. It only seems like a short time ago when the only person who could touch him was me. He would shy away from anyone who came close to him and would begin to cry. Not anymore. He is very comfortable sitting next to almost anyone, putting a hand on your shoulder and telling you what he sees.
Jamie also has a definite comedic streak. He lives everyday wanting to make people happy and is ready for each day. He has become quite a jokester and loves to make his brother and others laugh. He has gusto in his daily endeavors and is open to the things that are ahead of him. He enjoys giving love and affection to all those around him. He is incredibly intuitive and wants to make everyone around him happy.
Jamie is now seven years old and has just started the second grade. I have made a point of not sharing his past with anyone at his current school during his first two years. I wanted to give him the opportunity to be viewed the same as any typical student. I knew that if I talked about his past that some teachers would mentally label him and treat him differently.
We just received his report card with his grades for the first half of the year and it was filled with mostly A's and B's. One thing that filled my heart with joy was that after the first few weeks of first grade, I asked his teacher how he was doing and she responded, “He's doing good, just like any other first grader!” Jamie is eager every morning to go to school. He loves being in the second grade with his brother Jack.
In our recent interview with Jamie, he describes himself as a child who loves basketball, tennis, rollerblading, skiing and swimming. He loves music, including Celine Dion (many of her songs he can sing word-for-word), U2, the Shrek soundtrack, and Jack Johnson. His favorite things at school are art and science. He says that his favorite places to visit are Hawaii and Santa Barbara , California . He especially loves the swimming pool at the Grand Wailea in Maui . Jamie and Jack spend hours entertaining themselves with creating, playing, and imagining. He says that he sees himself as a professional tennis player when he grows up. |
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Jack says Jamie is his best friend. Jack loves playing tetherball and hopscotch with him at school. They like to play imaginative games and play with airplanes. Jack also says playing board games with Jamie is really great!
We are so proud of Jamie. He is such an incredible child. We wanted more than anything for Jamie to be a part of our world and we asked him to do some very difficult things during his recovery. Things that seem trivial and typical to most of us were monumental challenges to Jamie. All of his experiences as far as autism and his breathing issues have made him the little boy that he is today -- resilient, loving, kind, unassuming, and full of pure love.
I always felt that throughout our experience, Jack was a stabilizer to our family. We refer to him as our ray of sunshine. He was always happy and encouraging to his brother, and sweet and reassuring to me. He is amazing.
I couldn't feel more blessed than having had the extraordinary experience of being Jack and Jamie's mother. I will always feel tremendous gratitude to have been able to bring Jack and Jamie into our lives.
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