Special Thanks (Ten Things of Thankful)

(Because some people like Blogger and some like WordPress, i am putting the same content at both.  If you would prefer to read this on the other site, it is linked here.) 

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Hooray for Saturday!  It’s the day to stop and count my blessings, which are many and varied.

Today, i am thankful for some of the special people in my life.  Special needs special people, who enrich my life.

On Wednesday, i got to spend time with Gracie.  Some of you may remember her story — she spent the first two-and-a-half years of her life in an orphanage in Bulgaria.  When she was born, the doctors there said that because of her epilepsy she would be blind and retarded, and since she was the 11th child of that family, the parents “put her away” as they used to say.

She was adopted and brought here, and i am so thankful to have been able to watch her bloom and grow.  (She only very rarely has a seizure, and can see just fine with her glasses, and is in second grade now.)

Gracie and i had a great time when i stayed with her on Wednesday while her mother attended a funeral.  After her dinner, bath and tooth brushing, she said, “Let’s go chill!”  Chill we did, playing games all evening.  

Their male Basset hound, Otis, kept looking at the door and whining, and i got to hear Gracie tell him, “Be quiet, bonehead!”  This from a child who, because of lack of early stimulation, didn’t talk until she was almost 4.

Otis, a/k/a Bonehead.

On Thursday, i was at Ms. V’s house.  She and her husband have an adult special needs son.  He drives, and has a job rounding up carts at a store, but he will never be able to fully function on his own.

C has a great sense of humor, and a love of music.  He’s always sharing a new musical discovery or a funny story, and i am thankful for the laughs we have shared.

Friday was rEcess, and it was a wild time.  We celebrated Star Wars Day, making light saber crafts, wearing costumes, and it was a zoo in the gym with balls being thrown everywhere and tricycle races.

Peggy and Linda had wheelchair races (we pushed them, of course).

Petey got a lot of help on a tricycle, and made a couple of baskets on the basketball court.

Emmy got to run until she was tired.

Linda was my special charge, and we pretended to sneeze over and over, it is her current favorite game.  We threw the ball, and crawled up and down the halls visiting everyone.  (She is 12, about the size of a 7-year-old, has a severe mitochondrial disease of some kind and wasn’t even supposed to live this long, much less be able to crawl and play.)

Erin wasn’t able to be there this time, and i missed her.  She’s my favorite root beer buddy.  (She is 16, and has at least one crying spell each time, wanting her daddy, and root beer is what makes the tears go away.)

All this rambling about some of my favorite people to say, i am thankful for the joy they bring me.  Grateful that they do as much as they can, and push until they can do more, making me want to do the same.  Inspired by their parents, who have a load on their plates that i never had, and they don’t quit or give up on their kids.

Then there are the volunteers.  Some are adults, and some are teens.  Several of the teens already have all of their service hours for the year, and some don’t go to schools that require service hours, and yet they come to play with and love on these special children and their siblings.  Think about that the next time someone is fussing about kids these days, there’s a group of them that give up a Friday night eight times a year because they have a great time carrying and playing with children who can’t walk, fetching diapers and rinsing out feeding tubes, and just generally helping out.

Maybe in all of this meandering you will find up to ten things for which i am thankful, or maybe not quite ten.  It’s not a regular list, but that’s okay.  Josie Two Shoes, our hostess of Ten Things of Thankful, isn’t a taskmistress, and if someone doesn’t quite have ten things, or expresses them in a crazy way, that’s okay.

The point is to count our blessings, and i have more than i can list in any regular way.  Write up a few of your own and link up if you want, it’s a great way to share what’s good in our lives so we can celebrate with each other.

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Today is:

Arbegnoch Qen -- Ethiopia (Patriots' Victory Day)

Arrival Day -- Guyana

Bats Day in the Fun Park -- Anaheim, CA, US (includes The Bats Day Happy Haunts Swinging Wake: A Costumed Celebration, a Bat's Day Holiday Black Market, and a Spooky Trip to Disneyland; through tomorrow)

Bevrijdingsday -- Netherlands(Liberation Day)

Big Kansas Road Trip -- Barber, Comanche, and Kiowa Counties, KS, US (highighting all the great things there are to do in these Kansas Counties, and encouraging Kansans and tourists alike to come explore; through Sunday)

Bonza Bottler Day™

Cartoonists Day -- celebrates the first color cartoon ever published, The Yellow Kid, on this day in 1895.

Children's Day -- Japan (Kodomo-no-hi); South Korea (Orininal)

Cinco de Mayo / Anniversary of the Battle of Puebla -- Mexico, and anyplace that beer brewers want to make a minor battle into a big deal to increase beer sales today

Constitution Day -- Kyrgyzstan

Coronation Day -- Thailand (crowning of King Bhumibol Adulyadej in 1950)

Cotton Pickin' Fair -- Gay, GA, US (a fabulous two days of Southern family fun)

Day of Adoration of Anubis -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Europe Day -- Council of Europe

Fairy Ring Day (Receiving) -- Fairy Calendar

Free Comic Book Day -- check here for information, including a store locator  

Galveston Historic Homes Tour -- Galveston, TX, US (Galveston Island’s great treasures of Victorian and post-Victorian architecture that are privately owned are opened for tours this weekend and next)

Halfway Point of Spring/Autumn

Herb Day -- an international celebration of herbs and all the flavor they add to our lives; try a new herb to season a dish today  

Hidirellez  -- Turkey (arrival of spring and a religious holiday of the Alevi peoples, celebrating the meeting on Earth of the Prophets Al-Khidr and Elijah; begins this evening and goes through tomorrow)

Holland Tulip Time Festival -- Holland, MI, US (one of the best small town festivals in the US, with visitors from around the world; through next Sunday) 

International Day of the Midwife   

Lemonade Day -- Louisiana, US (empowering youth to start their own small businesses; there's a Lemonade Day in every state where there's a Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers franchise)   

Low Country Shrimp Festival -- McClellanville, SC, US (seafood, arts, crafts, civic displays, entertainment, and the blessing of the fleet)

Lusophone Culture Day -- Community of Portuguese-speaking countries

National Chocolate Custard Day

National Ferret Day -- UK  (previously sponsored, but the link is no longer available)

National Hoagie Day

National Homebrew Day -- US (Home Brewers Association)   

National Scrapbooking Day -- begun by Creative Memories, now celebrated by scrapbookers everywhere, a good article about it here   

Perfect Game Day -- Cy Young pitches baseball’s first officially recorded perfect game on this day in 1904

Pilgrimages to St Patrick's Purgatory begin -- Station Island, Lough Derg, County Donegal, Ireland (three day pilgrimages to the island where St. Patrick supposedly showed the Irish heathens Purgatory so they would be converted continue through August; such pilgrimages date back at least to the 10th century)

Quincy Preserves Spring Home Tour -- Quincy, IL, US (tour some of the most beautiful homes in Illinois!)

Save Lives Clean your Hands Day -- WHO 

Senior Citizens Day -- Palau

St. Judith's Day (Patron of Prussia)

Totally Chipotle® Day  

Towsontown Spring Festival -- Towson, MD, US (four stages of continual entertainment, food, art and photography exhibit, and more; through tomorrow)

World Naked Gardening Day -- scare the neighbors!  get rid of those pesky squirrels!  experience nature (and sunburn, and mosquito bites) with your whole body!  explore the website at your own risk

Anniversary Today:

The American Medical Association is founded, 1847

Birthdays Today:

Harry Cavill, 1983

Danielle Fishel, 1981

Tina Yothers, 1973

Brian Williams, 1959

Richard E. Grant, 1957

Jean-Pierre Leaud, 1944

Lance Henriksen, 1943

Michael Palin, 1943

Tammy Wynette, 1942

Michael Murphy, 1938

Pat Carroll, 1927

Ann B. Davis, 1926

Alice Faye, 1915 

Tyrone Power, 1913

James Beard, 1903

Nelly Bly, 1864

John Batterson Stetson, 1830

Karl Marx, 1818

Soren Kierkegaard, 1813

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Damn Yankees"(Play), 1955

Today in History:

Rebel barons begin a chain of events that leads to King John of England's eventual signing of the Magna Carta, 1215

Kublai Khan becomes ruler of the Mongol Empire, 1260

Jews are expelled from Speyer Germany, 1430

Christopher Columbus lands at Jamaica and claims it for Spain, 1494

In France, the Estates-General convenes for the first time since 1614, 1789

Citizenship is denied to Jews of Canton of Aargau Switzerland, 1809

Mary Kies becomes the first woman issued a US patent, for a method of weaving, 1809

The American Bible Society organizes in NY, 1816

Emperor Napoleon I dies in exile on the island of Saint Helena, 1821

In Belgium, the first railway in continental Europe opens between Brussels  and Mechelen, 1835

The American Medical Association forms in Philadelphia, 1847

Cinco de Mayo in Mexico: troops led by Ignacio Zaragoza halt a French invasion  in the Battle of Puebla, 1862

The first train robbery in the US occurs in North Bend, Ohio, 1865

Sitting Bull leads his band of Lakota into Canada to avoid harassment by the United States Army, 1877

The Music Hall in New York City (later known as Carnegie Hall) has its grand opening and first public performance, with Tchaikovsky as the guest conductor, 1891

Cy Young pitches the first perfect game in modern baseball history, 1904

Coco Chanel introduces Chanel No. 5, 1921

John T. Scopes is arrested for teaching evolution in violation of Tennessee's Butler Act, 1925

West Germany gains full sovereignty, 1955

Alan Shepard becomes the first American to travel into outer space, 1961

Bobby Sands dies in the Long Kesh prison hospital after 66 days of hunger-striking, aged 27, 1981

The government of Sudan signs an accord with the Sudan Liberation Army, 2006

Mass protests in Greece erupt in response to austerity measures imposed by the government as a result of the Greek debt crisis, 2010

China announces it will upgrade Ethiopia's infrastructure in an effort to improve a China-Africa strategic partnership, 2014

Scientists announce the discovery of the oldest and most distant galaxy known to man, EGS-zs8-1, 2015