My very first time, Texting my son with special needs

  Texting my son with special needs.  If you have followed our site for awhile you know my oldest son was born missing the left side of his heart. Yes he only has half a heart, he has HypoplasticLeft Heart Syndrome. He was very sick for the first 4 years of his life. We lived in and out of hospitals all over the northwest.  This boy is a fighter, over 14 surgeries he defied the odds and is still with us.  This week something special happened. He sent me a text message.

That being said he does struggle in some areas. Matthew is very small for his age, and he is also developmentally delayed.   He spends his school days in a special needs program. He is an 8th grader, but is still working at a 1st grade level.  We are so proud of the progress he has made. Sure he is not at the same pace as his peers.  But he is making progress and we celebrate each step forward he takes.

He learned that our cell phones have something called “texting” on them.  And if he looks up Uncle John or Granny’s name he can send them a message. Technically he is not suppose to text without asking. But often he sends a  2-3 word message that might say something like, “Football now” or “Come play”.  He sends a text once a month or so.  But I personally have never gotten a text from him before.

We do not text and drive!

We have a rule in our house, that we do not text and drive. So if I get a message while driving my 11 year old daughter will grab the phone and text for me. She has been doing this for years now.  So this week when I sent my husband a message and he was driving Matthew grabbed the phone and decided he would text for his Dad. This would be the first time he had done that. So I was not expecting him to reply.  This is how our conversation went.

  Texting my son with special needs

Mom: How is it going

Son: My ibid (did) good

Mom : Is this Matthew or Dad

Son: Matter (Matthew) Dad Driving

Mom: Did you go to the doctor yet?

Son: Come home

Mom Ok love you

Son: Ok (then he sent me the score from last nights football game)

I was smiling ear to ear!

Now to most people this is not a big deal. In fact most people would focus on his bad spelling and lack of sentence structure.  But for me I was smiling ear to ear. This was the first time I had ever had a text conversation with my 14 year old son, and I could actually read it. I knew what he was trying to say. He was so proud of himself,  he was helping text so Daddy could just drive.  Just like his younger sister always does for Mom.

We find joy when any of our 5 children succeed. Yet somehow it seems a little more special when your child who has struggled and worked so hard takes another step forward.  Sure his 6 year old brother can do the same thing, maybe even a better job.  But that only makes this very first text to me so very sweet. I sure am proud of you buddy… and NO this does not mean you can now have your own phone. One step at a time, remember :).

If you would like to read more about Matthew and Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, feel free to read more about him on his heart page.