Karen, know what you mean when it comes to family acceptance of disability. Mine were very overprotective. Sounds like you and thane are really doing awesome!! ----- Original Message ----- From: "Karyn and Thane" <bcpaws4me@xxxxxxxxxxx> To: "Vi-clicker" <vi-clicker-trainers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Saturday, May 24, 2008 2:20 PM Subject: (VICT) Trust and Teamwork OK a small vent has to be incorporated here in order to get the full scope of things Smile My family has never really accepted any of my disabilities. Helpfulness when it comes to my blindness, well lets face it, I ask neighbors or store personnel that I am friends with about things far quicker than I would ask family because frankly if its directions they just like to say things like *go this way* as they point their hand whatever way. Lets just say no matter how many times I tell them to use their words, it don't get through... LOL So the other day I finally got my mom to begin their promised help with getting Thane used to riding in a vehicle. I wanted to know how to get to another park here in town. One of my care workers a couple years ago was awesome with giving directions. Mom drove there to the park- of course she got totally lost doing it and once she discovered where it was, she would not redrive the route or tell me the specifics how to get there or better yet reverse my course. New places are still hard for me directionally as I am continuously losing a lot of ground visually now and seeking out landmarks- dream on. So here we are Thane and I. I decided since they were mowing our park to try and figure it out! giggle We actually got there pretty good once I decided to ignore *ALL* of my moms directions. Coming home though... snicker Lets just say we took the scenic route headed towards the hills instead of uptown where we live. Oh the myriad of exposures the two of us got from newly done accessible curbcuts that removed bumpy sidewalk configurations I was used to, to curbcuts and sidewalks that were truly after thoughts to areas where there were awesome curbcuts and sidewalks to places where tree roots made traversing the sidewalk feel like we were on a roller coaster practically! OK not quite but ya get the drift. Thane needs this type of exposure though as what I noticed was he tried his pull, pull, pull at first any time we passed people or lots of traffic again. With that exposure though, he was doing awesome for me after such a short bit of time. We gained a lot through that excursion. Self confidence was soaring in us both when we got ourselves *un-lost*. It showed me that if we hang tight together, we can figure our way around places even when people give us such crappy directions that you wonder who is the blind one afterall! It was really cool when Thane realized where he was. He got this extra skip in his step and it was like even he felt like we were soaring together. Our teamwork really has become quite an amazing thing. And in all honesty, I think he is one that gets bored with the same-ol, same-ol type of routes. It was one of those outings where I had to give a little and trust Thane directionally as well as know when to stand firm with the direction I felt we should be going. This kind of experience truly required us to work together. I really began feeling like we really can do anything in time. And to think he is just sixteen months old! I can't imagine how awesome this will be when he is three or five years of age. It just seems impossible that we have done all this in just a little over six months time. Karyn and Thane -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG. Version: 7.5.524 / Virus Database: 269.24.1/1464 - Release Date: 5/24/2008 8:56 AM