He's Making a Difference!

Every Wednesday morning, around 7:30 am, the garbage and recycling trucks blaze through our neighborhood. For John Michael, as with all our kids, this is an event you don't want to miss :-)  Before the truck is even on our street, we hear a low rumbling sound from a block away, followed by the high-pitched screech of the brakes, and finally, the loud machine grabbing the can and lifting the garbage up and over the top.  It's truly a magical sight to behold when you're a 3 year old boy!

And every Wednesday, Doug or I do our best to race John Michael out the front door to watch the garbage truck do its business and also to wave to the driver, who always waves and smiles back.

Today, Doug raced John Michael outside, but the truck had already passed.  It was about 8 houses up the street when the truck came to an abrupt halt and started going in reverse... all the way to our house!

The driver told Doug that today was his last day on this route and he had hoped he would see them.  He had something for John Michael.

The driver got out of his truck and handed John Michael a brand-new baseball cap from Sacramento County's Waste Management department.  John Michael became shy, but took the hat and held on to it.  Later on, inside, he modeled it for me.  It has a green garbage truck embroidered on it.  Very cool!

Doug shook his hand and thanked him.  When Doug told me about the exchange, I was so touched by the gesture that I had tears.  Obviously, John Michael made an impact on this man... a man we only saw once a week for a meer 20 seconds or so.  But somehow, John Michael made a difference in this man's life and touched him in a way that prompted him to think of JM before he went on his last route passing by our house this morning.  I don't know if it's because John Michael has Down syndrome.  I'll never know.  But I want the truck driver to know that he made a difference in our lives, too.  And we're grateful.

On a final note -- I had a number of comments on my last blog post regarding having another child after having a child with Down syndrome.  Thank you for your kind words.  I know the struggle that exists in that decision, but if you look at the photo of my 3 boys, I'd say Luke fits in perfectly, don't you?