Someone Special.

I met someone rather special today ...someone I may never forget...someone who has absolutely NO idea how much they impacted my life in just 30 minutes. I met someone today and even though he is of the male gender, my husband has absolutely NOTHING to worry about. He is only a little boy, but he is a special little boy, and I walked away hoping and praying that my children will be as kind and as dear as he was.

Our conversation started off with introductions that went something like this....

Me - "So what's your name?"
Boy- he says his name, but I cannot hear him over the noise of the hairdryers and side conversations...
Me - "GARREN???...GARRETT?? I'm sorry I didn't catch it..."
Boy - " GARRETT...my names GARRETT (emphasis on the T sound!)
Me - "well my name is Malia...nice to meet you.
Boy - "nice to meet you too!"

Boy (i suppose i can stop calling him boy because he told me his name, but for the sake of the story, he will remain nameless) proceeds to keep himself busy while continuing to stare at my slyly as I am on the phone or roaming around the salon. I catch his eye and smile continuously until I can't ignore him any longer and decide it's time I engage him a little bit further. So that's when I start firing questions at him and in just 30 minutes I found out that his name was Garrett. He had just turned 9 and he was VERY quick to tell me that his birthday was last Monday. He will be going into the third grade and he attends school over in Magnolia. In just 30 minutes I found out that he isn't allowed to drink much pop and he was going to McDonalds later for lunch...He always orders chicken nuggets with fries and RANCH...lots of ranch. He loves ranch, he's not a huge fan of barbeque sauce or ketchup...we had some issues after that one. I asked him what he's done this summer...and this is when it started to get interesting!

Me - "so what have you done this summer?"
Boy - "I have had 6 surgeries."
Me - trying to play dumb, even though I could kind of gather what it may have been for..."oh why??"
Boy - "SO I CAN WALK!!"

i suppose the time has come in the story where I should reveal that this kid had a sweet pair of wheels and I don't mean wheels on his little shoes that he could scoot around in. I mean he rolled around in a wheelchair because he has cerebral palsy and has had 6 surgeries and maybe even more under his belt before reaching the ripe age of NINE simply so the boy could WALK.

At that moment, amidst all of said boy's joy, I wanted to cry! And I wanted to go home and ride my bike as far as my legs could take me simply because I could. Well let's just say i didn't come home and ride my bike, and instead of riding I decided I would simply write about it!

Near the end of our time he asked if he could come around the front desk so he could hear me better, and at the end I heard him ask his grandmother if he could come back.

oh simple pleasures...how those precious moments and those random encounters make me love my job!