Independence (and 11 months!)

Jason had his driving exam this morning and....he passed!  Actually, passed with flying colors.  Didn't get any points deducted.  He celebrated by driving himself to work...I was supposed to take him and then take Savannah to the children's museum to meet up with her friends, but that plan got nixed because of how long the DMV process took (and because, quite honestly, Savannah was a little terror at the DMV and the thought of taking her to any other public places just exhausted me...).  All our other trips to the DMV have been pretty easy and short.  We always have appointments, and we always seem to be in and out in less than 30 minutes.  Today's adventure took closer to two hours!  Jason was all ready to go for the exam, and was then told he'd need a special proctor...so that took a while.  As did all of the processing of paper work.  Oh well, we're done with it now!  And Jason can drive himself places, which is HUGE in terms of independence.  And it's pretty huge for me, too: lots less chauffeuring to do :)

The timing of getting the license is nice:  tomorrow is 11 months since the accident.  I'm not sure if, 11 months ago, I could've imagined him (and us!) doing so well.  I'm a little nervous about this next milestone....one year since the accident.  I'm not sure how either of us will respond to that day.  Even though, on a rational level, I know we're doing incredibly well, there's still an emotional element to this that can be incredibly heart breaking at times.  Most of these difficult moments revolve around our girl, and both of us re-adjusting our visions of parenthood.  For example, we're in the process of getting Savannah her first bike.  She's wanted one for a while now, but we've been hesitant.  I guess there are obvious reasons for this-Jason was, after all, paralyzed while riding a bike.  If I'm honest with myself, though, that's not the real problem.  In my head, it was always supposed to be Jason teaching her how to ride a bike.  He was supposed to hold on to the seat, running behind her as she pedaled off on her own.  That's not going to happen now.  This is just one example-probably not even that significant of one-but it's these smaller things that have a way of catching you off guard.  I know we would both appreciate any kind thoughts and prayers sent our way as we approach July 9.

Lots of exciting things coming up in the next month, though, that should make July 9 a little better.

• Jason goes in for the final fitting for braces on Monday (thus ending a ridiculously long process)
• We fly out to Baltimore on Friday, June 15!  I expect there will be a lot more blog entries while J is at Kennedy Krieger.

I hope you all are doing well!

Love you all,

Ashley