Thankful Day 13

Here are a few things that have happened to me in my neighborhood recently.  All true.  All reinforce my belief that there are so many good people in the world.

• Emma and I were waiting for Julia's bus and I was asking her questions and holding up my hands with the Yes/No response we use.  A woman turned onto the side street, parked and came over to us to introduce herself.  She told me she is a SpecEd teacher and that one of her four children has special needs and asked if I have a symbol communication mode to use with Emma.  She told me she owns the symbol software - which is a really expensive program - and would be happy to provide me with sheets of symbols if I needed them.  I told her we did use some symbols but are moving to the EyeGaze system.  I was - and still am - touched that she went out of her way to reach out to us in case we needed her help. 
• Emma and I were waiting for Julia's bus another day.  Yes, I know, lots goes on with us at this bus stop since it is a busy street ;-)  Anyway, it was nice out and Emma was looking for Julia's bus so I decided to sit on the grass and read her communication notebook to see what she did that day that I could ask her questions about.  Someone pulled onto the side street and stopped and asked me if we were ok.  Did we need anything?  I told them we were just waiting for the school bus but it was so nice of them to ask.
• I was taking a walk with Emma and Finnegan about a week ago and a car stopped at the stop sign, rolled down the window, and shouted out to Emma how she loved her fancy wheels and said a few other things to her.  Emma was tickled with all the extra attention.  And she knew it was all for her - the woman didn't talk to me at all and talked directly to Emma.  I love when people do that!
• Today I was on a walk with Emma and Finnegan.  A lady yelled at me to keep my dog off her grass.  Ok, will do.  Only problem was she was cleaning up leaves from a house that wasn't hers.  How was I to know her house was a couple over?  And that is the exact house Finnegan decided to do her business!  Hmmm.....poor Finnegan didn't know what happened when I told her to stop and started pulling on her leash to get her to move on ;-)  Luckily, the walk got better.  A lovely woman and her daughter were walking with their little dog.  I stopped and put Finnegan in a sit position to let them pass - seriously, I don't need a dog fight while pushing a wheelchair and dodging the helium balloon attached to it along with the talker! - and she started a conversation with us.  She knew who we were since her children swim with my neighbor an she has seen us at church.  Everyone around here seems to know us from Church!  Emma really makes an impression there and it would appear that it is her most favorite place to visit each week.  We had a bit of a chat and she told me she knows I must be busy and if I ever need any help with the girls her children would be available to help me out then told me which house was hers so I knew where to go for the help.  Wow.  Such a lovely offer from a virtual stranger.  

Once again I'm thankful for a sense of community.