Blog Post #1,000 - Week of May 18th

“There is no greater disability in society than the inability to see a person as more.” ~Robert M. Hensel

Temple Grandin is quoted as saying, “I am different, not less.”  It is a lasting reminder that we continuously learn from each other.  

Cam faces daily challenges, obstacles and roadblocks.  

He has chosen positivity (for the most part) and does show us that you can always look at things from another perspective and through a different lens.

Because of his perseverance and that "can-do" attitude, his mom committed to posting his blog every week and suddenly, we made it to Blog #1,000!! 🥳🎉To celebrate Cam's graduation, Jane created a book filled with the words of family, close friends and teachers.  The words describe when they first met Cam and how he has influenced their lives.  And of course, each entry featured pictures of the folks providing the written input.  Over 80 pages fill the keepsake.  Cam is humble and was quite overwhelmed by the book's content.  

Cameron's school program allows him to finish out the school year if he chooses.  So, this week he continued his 6am wake up call to make the bus pick up each morning.  Sometimes, the deer pause their morning breakfast to watch us make our way down the driveway.

Wednesday evening we were invited to Brody's birthday dinner at a nearby restaurant.  We were stopped in our effort due to a dire message on the screen of the Cam Van alerting us that there was an issue.  Erring on the side of caution, we abandoned our plans.  When Chris started checking under the hood (thanks to Mr. Nick, Amanda's husband) he was surprised to find a nest of some sort and a chewed up wire.  We have no idea how much money was saved by Cam's dad playing mechanic but we were so thrilled he was able to fix it!

With the early Memorial Day weekend, school was not in session on Friday and Jane took a day off of work.  Cam was scheduled to work at GVSU with the graduate PT students.  

Professor Dr. Lisa always tells her students that Cam is one of the best teachers she's ever known.  

Following his sessions with the students, Jane and her son were interviewed by a pre-med student who wanted to practice talking to families and gathering information.
Many of the physical therapists who were there overseeing the students are long graduated and work in the community.  Many have known Cam for quite a few years and cannot believe he graduated high school!

Saturday morning, we were trekking north to pick up Oma and head to the cottage.  There was a brisk wind and the weather did not look promising, but we had committed to spending one night at the big lake.

We brought a giant Yahtzee game found at Costco. It was so much fun to play the oversized family favorite!  Cam was the only one of us to get a Yahtzee and somehow Oma still managed to win!

It was nice enough outside for our foursome to enjoy dinner on the deck.

The sunset tried valiantly to peek through the horizon.

We drove back home in the rain on Sunday.  Cam had been invited to the grad party of his longtime school friend, Tiana.  Her plans to have an outdoor gathering were changed due to the buckets of rain coming down.  There wasn't a good way for Cam to make it inside her home so Tiana ran out to see her buddy.

Later that same day in the early evening, the sun blanketed our backyard.

A neighborhood creature appeared on our grass just looking to soak up the warmth.

The fox is a rare sighting for us.  

Summer is coming and we are starting to feel the change that will bring us more consistent sunshine.

Cam asked his mom how many more blog entries she will write.  Her response: "It turns out people want to know what you're doing, so at this time, there is no expiration date."

Camology Quotes:

Cam's use of the English language does take us by surprise. It's not the complicated words that he'll sometimes use. It's more of the way he speaks, like an old soul.  When discussing a documentary on tv, he indicated:

"Funny enough, I didn't even know that!'