F said Bye... with his voice!

This young man is really piling on the vocal milestones lately.  A couple of weeks ago, while I was out running the dogs, he and Caroline were out for a walk.  He said "mom" really loud.  She looked up and saw me coming towards them.  I couldn't believe that he could see me from that distance since he is considered legally blind with no functional vision.  However, his vision impairment is the type that familiar is what he does see.  He walks the same path on their walks and he knows what I look like.  It's not unrealistic for him to have seen me.  But to say "mom" was so surprising.  Caroline said it was clear as day.

Today when Mary, his paraeducator, was leaving at the end of lessons he said "Bye" with his voice.  Not his Maestro, with his voice!  We are going on over a year of intense speech therapy and he is starting to say words!  Of course, I always miss  hearing them.  F hates to do anything that would impress me in front of others.  I'm good with that.  Let him have his independence.  He and I have been joined at the hip for way too many years with me hovering and doting on him... speaking for him.  I'm happy to be in the background.  I'm happy to hear others tell me about his progress.

You go son!  I'm cheering for you to be all that you can be, without my help!!

All this progress just stirs up so many conflicting emotions that I cannot even begin to speak about without welling up into tears.  Emotions such as elation, joy, pride, love, etc. Words come into mind such as deprived, cheated, denied, mislabeled, discrimination, unteachable, unmotivated, ... that stir other types of emotions.  I must over-ride those negative emotions with the positive ones and forget about the past.. but sometimes it just so hard not to think about those "what if's."