Wearden Family News: Walk for Autism

I promised Rhonda I wouldn't put the pictures I took of her at the walk on Facebook and I am keeping that promise--only a LINK to a site containing the picture is on Facebook! :-D

This past weekend was the Burkhart Walk for Autism here, and we signed up to represent Team Gaby!

My family was not able to come because my sister Amber's birthday was the 20th and her party the 21st, so I don't begrudge their inability to attend. It was not a big deal anyway, I just wanted to go to see what everything was about.

Friday we load up in the van to go to Walmart and get some supplies....and of course my van will not start. It is having the most bizarre electrical trouble that has rendered it undriveable, which is frankly a pain in the neck. The Peacocks graciously offered to watch the kids while Michael and I made the Walmart run. I got plain white t-shirts and fabric paint as well as a great deal of sunscreen so that we could make team shirts. Nothing fancy or formal, I just wanted something to commemorate the day.

Saturday, I practice on one of Michael's ratty old undershirts before I start making the real ones. I give the practice shirts to the kids to color on...they really loved that. Gabriel showed an uncharacteristic desire to be involved, so sitting next to me and scribbling on that white shirt meant a lot to me.

Beth came over to help and decorate her own shirt--in rainbow colors across the front each shirt said "Team Gaby". There was all ready a Team Gabriel and a Gabriel's Team (likely from the little boy in his class) so we became Team Gaby. On the sleeves were "2 0" and "1 2" (the date, just spread out), and on the back was the relationship to Gaby. Beth's said "Friend", Benjamin's "Lil Bro", Emerald "Big Sis", mine "Mama", Michael's "Daddy", and Gabriel's said "Star" and had two stars next to it. This being his day, I figured he should have a special shirt.

It was -only- supposed to be 85 degrees, so I sprayed all of us down from head to foot with the strongest sunscreen I could find as well as insisting on hats for those who could tolerate them (Emerald and Benjamin). Ken came home from work so that he would be able to attend and we all drove over to Jones Stadium together.

Once we got there, there was a long line to get free t-shirts. It moved fairly quickly with Benjamin sleeping in the stroller, Gabriel riding on Michael's shoulders, and Emerald getting to play inside a firetruck. That just made her day--I think Gabe may have liked it too if it weren't so very red and noisy. We met up with Beth and David while we were in line and went in together.

Inside, they had bouncy houses set up so Michael, Glo, and Pawpaw took the bigger kids to go jump while the Peacocks and I took little Ben to look at the booths.

I honestly did not know what to expect. I have been to walks before, but they involved very little walking to be honest. At the Breast Cancer "walks" I have attended, my friends and I mostly flirted with boys, ate tons of food, and gathered one of every free giveaways in sight. That being said I know that some walks are actually intended to walk but there is usually some incentive for walking--you get sponsors to give you money to walk that you then give to the charity. This had none of that, and I went in completely unaware of how this event was going to go.

(Gabriel kissing Daddy on the top of the head. He is a sweet boy.)

As it was, a sweet Autistic boy sang the national anthem, they turned on obscenely loud music, and we actually started walking!! This is not what I signed up for--it is ridiculously hot, we have three little children...we wanted bounce houses and information!

So that is what we did. Sarah and Barbara showed up for a little bit though Barbara was immediately called back to work, and we let the kids run around and have fun while I talked to people about private therapies and hippotherapy and support groups. Sara Sue and her boyfriend Jason showed up right before we left, but it was so fabulous to see them.

The kids were getting hot and restless so we took a group picture and headed home. Gabe fell asleep on the way and Emerald crashed as soon as we got home, and we decided most definitely that THIS weekend we are doing exactly SQUAT!!!