Special Needs Workers

This week Secretary and I are working to complete 4 bulletins, the newsletter, plus the usual letters, postcards, etc. that are part of the work of the office. She is leaving Friday on vacation, so we need to have everything done this week. We lost time while Secretary was off following eye surgery, which makes things even more chaotic.

Yesterday Secretary decided to come back in the evening to see how much we could get done with the kids' help. She does therapeutic foster care for a local RTC. She currently has 2 boys. J attends the workshop with Daughter. He has Aspergers. O is a sophomore in high school. He is of normal intelligence but has a disability that makes it impossible for him to organize anything. It is always an adventure when we have these three in the office.

Some of things you would have heard us say if you had been there last night:

"Stop and listen to what I'm telling you to do. Stop! Look at me. Watch what I'm doing."

"J, stop humming."

"Slow down and do it properly."

"Why do I have so many inserts left over? Did you print extra?"

"You have to do them one at a time. That's how you missed putting inserts in 30 bulletins the first time."

"I did do it right!"

"Would you please stop humming and sit down?"

"Stop! That won't work, the staples go into the stapler point down."

"The address labels need to be down here, not above the return address."

"Please match up the edges when you are folding bulletins."

"Did you see the way I showed you to do it? Is that the way you are doing it? Watch while I show you again. Look at me! Watch!"

"If you don't get out of the way and stop humming I'm going to send you to another room!"

"Please go back through these bulletins to find the ones that are missing inserts and put them in."

Miraculously, by the end of the evening all the newsletters were stapled, labeled, and sorted. Two bulletins were folded with proper inserts in them. The biggest miracle of all? The kids were still alive and uninjured. Daughter was even in a good mood!

Our favorite story of having our kids at the church is from last winter. They all had a snow day, so we sent them out to shovel snow. When they came in, I gave them some packets of hot chocolate and told them they could go to the kitchen and make them. In response to their questions, we told them they could use the coffee maker to heat the water for the hot chocolate. After a while, we realized we'd been enjoying the peace and quiet for too long. We went downstairs and they were trying to make hot chocolate by putting the mix in the basket of the coffee maker. They couldn't figure out why it wasn't working.

Fast forward a couple of weeks. Secretary and I were downstairs getting ready for a church supper. We pulled out the coffee maker, and were shocked to discover someone had put it away with water in it. Puzzled, I wondered who had used it last. In a flash of insight, we said at the same time, "Our kids!"

Life is always an adventure. After time with Secretary's boys, I have a greater appreciation for Daughter.