A lot of my coworkers have little children or are about to have a child. This has had me thinking about my parents. My parents dedicated their lives to make sure that I have the life I have.

I was born in 1971. At this time a lot of parents were advised to have their disabled child checked in an institution so they can get the 'care' they need. Parents were told to not have high hopes as their was not much hope in the world for a disabled person. They chose the path that no one dared to travel. They were committed for me to have a life. A life with highs and lows. A life of love and heartbreaks. A life of laughing and crying. A life of success and mistakes. A life to the fullest. A life I can call my own.

I'm grateful for your numerous battles with school boards who were not ready to accept me.

I'm grateful for you being a hard ass by making me work all hours of the night to one finger type my assignments.

I'm grateful that you didn't make excuses for me.

I'm grateful that you helped me build an armor shield that I would need to depend on when you weren't around.

I'm grateful for the many hours you spent with me in the hospital rooms telling me the pain would not be forever.

I'm grateful for all the sacrifices you made to buy the special equipment I needed.

I'm grateful for everything I have now.

You did an amazing job in raising someone who is a husband, who is a brother, who is an uncle, who is a son-inlaw, brother-in-law, uncle, and co-worker. You did an awesome job raising Dave.

We had stairs in our house while growing. Stairs that were a huge obstacle for me. Despite asking my dad many times to build a ramp he never did. For the longest time I thought it was because he couldn't be bothered. A week before he died he told me that the reason why he never built the ramp was because he would not always be around to build ramps for me in this world...so I needed to be prepared to climb for myself.

For those of you that have children or are about to have a child, remember it's not the material things you give them, it's not about knowing all the right things to do, it's about giving them the opportunity to experience a full life.

I think I'm going to call my mom right now.

Until next time...