Happy Sunday

We had a very good day in church this morning and I just had to share some of the highlights. 

• The priest that baptized Kevin has retired but he was here this morning to officiate the Mass and we were very happy to see him.
• One of our favorite Deacon's was also at this Mass. Kevin loves to see him and he even gave Kevin’s feet a blessing after church. 
• Our family was asked to bring up the Offertory Gifts which is always special for us but today the priest invited us to go all the way up to the altar and Kevin did great!
• I’m not sure if this is intentional or not but I have noticed recently that when our current pastor has the Mass that we attend, he will position himself for communion on our side (normally the priest is always on the other side) and he will give Kevin a blessing when he walks up with us at communion. Today Deacon W gave Kevin a blessing at communion. This means more to me than I can express in words. 
• Greg at FHC gave us a helpful tip to use spearmint essential oil for Kevin to smell when he gets anxious. We sometimes have to use this at church. Today during Mass, Kevin purposefully took my hand and put it by his nose, so I gave him a smell of the spearmint. Then he took my hand and put it to his ear. I was going to try to hold out and discourage the noise canceling headphones but because he was communicating so clearly with me I promptly gave him the headphones to wear. It wasn’t until my husband and I were talking about it after church that I realized this is what Kevin was doing with my brother when Kevin was visiting them in February. This clear communication is a big deal for us and it makes up for the sock incident episodes that I have been feeling bad about. (The short story on the sock episode is that during my recovery I asked Kevin to take my socks off and he was not able to understand what I was asking of him despite the fact that I was giving him all kinds of verbal cues, pointing, and sign language. It was additionally baffling to me because I know he knows what socks are because Kevin will not go to bed without socks on his feet. This is something we will discuss with FHC at our upcoming visit in May.)
• A couple new church folks that we haven’t had interaction with before came up to Kevin after Mass to tell him that he did a good job.
• It makes me very happy that we feel included at our church and that they make Kevin feel special in a good way.

Added Note:

• I had mentioned in an earlier post that Kevin was to have the Hyprocure surgery on his feet in mid February. Unfortunately, we had to postpone his surgery because I was experiencing a lot of pain and it was necessary for me to have a full open hysterectomy procedure. We rescheduled Kevin’s surgery eight weeks after mine, which is this coming Saturday, April 12.  This is why Deacon W gave Kevin’s feet and his doctor a blessing after church. I will post an update post surgery.