Life Starts Outside the Routine

When Josh graduated from (aged out of) the public school system in June of 2025, Tom and I felt so lost. We were unsure of how we would navigate life now that Josh would be home with us 24/7. There are so few resources for our special needs adults. There used to be day programs where special needs adults could go and be with their peers, but the government shut them down because they weren’t “inclusive.” (This still completely blows my mind.) My outlook has changed drastically in the last year+, but I’ll get to that later.

We are fortunate that Josh is able to go to work with us every day. My office space is set up where half is his and half is mine. *The truth is, I have a corner of the entire space and his stuff is everywhere.😂 We are able to do S2C (Spelling to Communicate) lessons at the office, and our practicioner comes to us usually once a week. We struggle to get to the office before noon, and I feel like my work is suffering because of it.

I know I’ve spoken many times before of Ashley, the amazing teacher Josh had for his last year of school. We’ve had great teachers in the past, people who loved our kids and worked with them the way they had been taught. Ashley was different. She didn’t listen to what other people at the school said about the limitations of the guys in her classroom- she worked with them as if they were capable of doing things. She presumed competence, even when others told her not to expect much. I remember being amazed sometimes when she would tell me things Josh was doing at school.

Around the same time that Ashley was encouraging our son to try new things, The Telepathy Tapes podcast came out. The first season of this podcast changed my life. Our lives. It’s where we learned about Spelling to Communicate. It’s where we learned about whole body apraxia. (From Google: Whole-body apraxia is a severe motor planning disorder where the brain cannot properly plan, sequence, or execute voluntary physical movements across the entire body. Despite having normal muscle strength and the desire to move, a person with this condition experiences a brain-body disconnect affecting large and small motor actions.)

Josh’s whole life up to then, we were functioning under the assumption that the experts knew what was best. Before that last school year at age 25/26, Josh had basically been taught preschool lessons (like colors, numbers, shapes) every year since he was 3. That last schoolyear, my mindset started to change… slowly but surely.

We had gone camping with our good friends Nan & Joe for about five years, and last year we decided to try an Air B&B instead of camping. Major game-changer! Fast-forward to this summer. With our new-found confidence and the security of being in an Air B&B house, we decided to try vacationing more often. First we went like 4.5 hours south to Ohio to visit Grandma & Grandpa Morrison. That trip went so well, and we were grateful to be able to spend time with my amazing in-laws. The next trip was our annual vacation with Nan & Joe, and we went about 3 hours north. That trip was fantastic, too! We did some awesome hikes on both of those trips.

Between these two trips, Ashley had shared a post about a special needs camp in Greenville. I had never heard of this place before! After contacting them and having a lengthy conversation with the Camp Director, we filled out the application and started making plans for Josh to go to camp for the first time in his life. Now, if you have known our family for a while, or if you’ve read our blog post called “Hey, Where’s Josh?” you know that Josh was an eloper for the first 16-17ish years of his life. This camp that we were talking about sending him to was wide open spaces. They sleep in TENTS! So naturally there was some trepidation at first.

I booked my site at a campground just a few miles from where Josh would be “just in case.” We had never dropped Josh off somewhere for the night, let alone for three nights! We had also never left him somewhere where we didn’t know anyone, but Ashley’s cousin Caitlyn works there! I started to feel peaceful about it. More and more I was feeling comfortable with the idea of Josh going to camp. We had so many people praying for us!

Monday got here, and it was time to take Josh to camp. Tom and I got to meet the counselor who would be one-on-one with him, and I was so happy. You could tell Jake was a very kind person, and I felt reassured that Josh would be well taken care of. In fact, everyone that works there are obviously loving and compassionate. I didn’t even cry when we left! (Another answered prayer.)

Jake sent pics when he was able, and I was grateful for the updates. He looked happy in the pics, and Jake said Josh didn’t have any emotional times- which is great!

Josh and Jake high-fiving (I wish I knew what game they were playing!)

Relaxing in the shade with a cool drink of water.

At this point, Josh isn’t able to tell us if he enjoyed his time at camp. The happy pics make us think he liked it. He didn’t always participate in the activities, but he would at least watch the other people doing the things. We are hopeful that if Josh can go again next year, he will know more what to expect and will want to join in.

It’s interesting… if we had learned of this camp five years ago (or even last year) we wouldn’t have given it a second thought. We learned of this amazing place exactly when we were supposed to, when we were all ready to broaden our horizons. Outside of the routine of school, we started LIVING!🤗🍀

Rainy Day Thoughts