Every year for Christmas, family friends Tom and Lutu Coffey give us a thoughtful and generous gift. When I collected pitchers to fill my kitchen shelves, they sent me beautiful ones designed by local artists. We still snuggle under the large fleece blanket they sent years ago. We looked forward to our special gift this year. We could not have prepared for this year's masterpiece. We happened to be in town when Tom and Lutu were visiting their family in Charlotte. When they stopped by to drop off our gift, we let them know how we always appreciate their creative presents. We said this without knowing what was in the large bag they brought. Ryan did the honors. There were three framed photographs of orchids. Beautiful. Gorgeous. All three photographs were of award winning plants. The photographs were the official ones from the judged event. Each framed piece had an official certificate attached to the back. The first one was named for Ben. The second was named for Logan.
These stories describe our journey with Ben, our oldest son. Ben is a sweet and energetic redhead, born with Rett Syndrome, a rare genetic mutation. My husband, Ryan, and I try to keep up with Ben and his two younger brothers. I intend to shed insight into raising a child with disabilities and pass on the wisdom we’ve earned over the past two decades.