I looked for just the right font for this, I could not find one. Blogger, gives is very few choices. these days. So, I guess, I can plug in some webdings and color to give my post some flavor ... if I so choose. I wish I could warn you about what is about to come out of my fingers. But I must warn you: It is 3:30 on Friday morning ... and on Sunday Morning, my little baby boy, the one who so charmly held his hands on his hips at one year and said "DON'T YOU DO THAT! " to a nurse who was going to give him a breathing treatment .... and the same sweet sweet boy, who stood up, and stook out his hand to say "Nice to meet you" to the ER doctor who had treated him for being very very ill and saved us yet another hospital visit. We'd spend the whole day in that ER, going through IVbags, and IV antibiotics .... trying to keep a just barely 2 year old to understand "yes, they are acting like the hospital, not "checkers" like the ER ...but they want to keep you out of the Hosiptal if they can." After 13 hours .... The doctor came back ...blood levels had stableized ... a nurse would come and draw blood in the middle of the night, and to listen to his breathing, run one bag of fluids. If all was stable, he'd be ok, and would not need hospitallization. They were fighting to keep this kid with the bad ear and the bronchitis off the floor, even though he EAAAAAZily met criteria ... but they had pneumonia, RSV, and an unknown skin virus that seems to be spreading from room to room. (years later, they now call that an \MSRA investion) We won, we and patient doctor's ... won.
So, we're getting ready to leave, Samuel, is just over 2, his mom is pregnant and about to pop at any given sneeze in the wrong way (wasn't going to be that easy ...he was late too ...and had to be incudeced as well ...stubborn boys!) And he just stood up straight and tall, miliatry style, poked out his hand and said "it was nice you could meet me today"

WE ROLLED. Poor kid had no idea what he'd really said ...but we all knew what he'd meant. He made, the doctor's day! Holiday weekned too, I'm sure. WE always thought he didn't understand his slip. Now? We really have to question it.

My son. Samuel Dwayne Eagler, Born October 14, 1989 to a set of parents who were too medically fragile to have kids .. had the genetic stack of cards ...stacked against him. Joint problems, cholesterol, autoimmunnity comes from both mom's side (paternally) and Dad's side: He has a mother with Myasthenia Gravis and Lupus and fibromyalgia,an aunt with Rheumatoid Arthritis and Fibromiyalgia, and an uncle with Multiple Sclerosis. His Grandfather has Glocucoma and Psoriasis. His Grandmother has Celeiac Diesease. There may be more that we're missing that we may not even be aware about.

But. he just goes on about life ... life, is what you make of it. Life hasn't rolled him the best ball ... but he's learned how to pick up that ball ... and either make you think it's a funny clowns face ... and made you laugh with it ... or, he's developed a really fun and engaging game, and gotten you to go along with his schemes ... Or, he's turned it into an object lesson he can teach about.

His caring for thers, seems to know no boundries ... even when proven that someone might be harming him, not have their best intersests at heart ... they always ... always have the last chance. We've tried to tell him that there has to come day when that rope must be cut ...and his response is "Jesus, would never cut that rope," ouch!

I think, my biggest admiration for him comes in handling his own personal 'challenges'. Which, he does not see ... in any way, shape, or form, as challenges. He sees these ... what are called in the medical and psychiatric fields as 'disorders' ... as ...how shall I put this ... an emphasis on his personality? He has both Tourette's Syndrome and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. The OCD will get to him long before the Tourette's. The TS, will never ever get to him. However, he uses the OCD to his advantage whenever he can possibly figure out a way to do so. (ok, so why can he not use it to MY advantage and get the neatnick part of it to clean my house and do his chores 'just so' ...huh? huh? huh? ...leave it to me to get an OCDer that doesn't care about neatness! horder/clutterbug ...hmph!)

His OCD enables him to make sure that he knows what he needs to know for school, to pass his classes, to make sure that his scores on the ACT & SAT are going to be top notch, and scholarship range. He uses it, to remember things about his friends, the things most friends forget ... birthdays, first days at work, work reviews, big tests ... and he calls the friend to check on them ... just the little things in life ..that when someone thinks of us, we feel loved and cared for ....

When he was first diagnosed with the Tourette's Syndrome, he was in the 5th grade. It was one of the years we didn't homeschool when he was younger. He had a teacher, who didn't get it. So, I'd had some on line friends write some letters about how their children's tourette's effected them in the classroom. I let him read the letters. As he did, he saw himself in those letters. After reading several of them ... he looked up with this big grin on his face and declared "I'm NORMAL in my Abnormalities!"

That, has been his life theme statement. I have these things in my life that society declares 'not normal' .... it's not normal to obsess on saying something 10 times till it sound 'right' ... it's not "normal" to walk around 'yelping' ...or saying "ayeb, OH MY, fish noise" (his current tic) it's not normal to have to walk only on the right side of the sidewalk and touch every portrution that sticks out of the walls ... and if you don't, turn around and start again (HAVE TO TOUCH) it's not normal to jerk your head back and swing it forward and back again. It's not normal to jerk your elbow out to the side.

It's just not normal ...unless ... you have OCD and Tourette's ... then, it's perfectly normal ...because that's what a person with OCD and Tourette's do ... so, he's normal in his abnormalities.

He's never had a bit of self esteem issues since he learned what the disorders are, and that for what he has, he's perfectly normal.

He's met a few people with SEVERE forms of the disorders, they've been in our church ... and they've been rejected ... and I heard him on the phone one afternoon ... calling every single youth group member ... explaining ... you know, you've been around it for years with my brother and I. It's not his fault. This, is what it is. He fought long and hard to bring acceptance for these other children. He had some sucess too ... his method ...education and kindness and example, with vunerability.

Some kids don't like him, some just don't find him funny. Some, need to hang around with kids who have the kind of money they have to go do things with ... having a kid who can just hang around a coffee shop or park or at home, isn't their cup of tea. It's different than when I
was a kid. Many of us had no spending money ...
ever ...so it was the majority that didn't have money to spend, not the miniority.

But I think, the lessons he's learning ... will keep him conscience of what God is doing for him, and through him as he enters this world we call adulthood.! happy Birthday Samuel.
I admire my son. I like who he is. If he were not my son, I would like to think, he'd let me be his friend. Happy Birthday Samuel.