Some Progress

I have an annoying personality. I know that it annoys many others, but at times it is most annoying to me.

You see, I can't give up. I have to finish something. I have to keep trying one thing or another to try to make something work. It becomes especially annoying when I can't get one of my technological devices to do what I need it to do.

Saturday and Sunday nights I had a very large fight with both my printers trying to get graduation announcements done. Bart told me that I should give up. He told me I had invested way too much time in it.

Now since when is the fact that I have invested a lot of time a reason to give up? That is the reasont to try HARDER to get it done right so that I don't look back and think that I wasted all of the time for nothing.

At 9:45 I had a breakthrough and actually got them to print. And we got half of them done before I ran out of ink. So, I will be going to the store (in addition to the psychiatrist twice and an MD for two kids) this morning to get another cartridge. By 4 p.m. the stupid things will be in the mail.

I kept plugging along trying one more thing, researching one more troubleshooting website, checking one more message board trying to figure out the problem. And wouldn't you know, it finally paid off.

I think this is why I can continue to parent kids with multiple challenges. It's that hope that if I keep learning, keep looking for it, keep researching, keep trying new things, that eventually I will reach every kid. I see every morning as an opportunity to try again when I have failed, every day as a fresh start, every week as the beginning of possibilities for each child.

And with that attitude, even though at times it annoys the world, these kids will reach adulthood. And I'll still be alive as well.