The Best Therapist

Today I had a major breakthrough! I don't know if I mentioned it before, but Alex is a twin, he has a sister. She doesn't have any special needs or prevalence of Fragile X Syndrome. She may be a carrier of the disease, we don't know yet.

I will never forget that day in the doctor's office when he told us we were going to have twins! When the doctor gave my husband and I the news, all I can remember is uncontrollable laughter billowing from the both of us. I am amazed that they didn't take us away in straight jackets. We still don't know why we burst out laughing. I guess we just didn't know what else to do!

You see, there is no history of multiples in either of our families. We had never, in our wildest dreams, expected twins. What a shocker that was! Fortunately, our daughter was 5 at the time, we'd have never made it if she'd been any younger! But now, thirteen years later, it is perfectly clear. What a plan! I am not going to lie, it took us awhile to appreciate the irony!

As you can imagine, our life with twins was chaotic. I must confess, I am not the most organized person, and I am a person who requires 12 hours of sleep to function. Not ideal qualities to be a mother of twins. And my twins, they gave us a run for the money!! I think we were always in a state of frenzy! Someday, I might share some of their stunts.

By the time Alex was finally diagnosed with Fragile X Syndrome, our house was crazy! We had a daughter in kindergarten and 16 month old twins. Now we find out that Alex will be needing therapists by the billions..... :) It seemed that way at the time! We made all the arrangements. And in and out of the house they came, and in and out of the centers we went. We never missed any appointments. This has gone on for all of Alex's 13 years. I think we are down to three a week now. We have seen tons of progress, it is scary to think what Alex would be missing had he not received all that early intervention. The thing I learned today, though, is that I have been overlooking his best therapist. She's definitely been the most consistent and I have never had to fight an insurance company for her services.

Today the kids came home from school acting like it was Christmas morning! I don't know what had gotten into them! Of course today was the day for the speech therapist to come, I could not get Alex settled down for anything, so I finally gave up. I just turned on the tv and left the room.

From the kitchen, I could hear twin sis, "Alex, take deep breaths." Pretty soon it was, "you'd better go to the bathroom before she gets here." I am not sure what her motivation was, she had been as ornery as him, but it worked! Hmmm...

Later, we were picnicking in the family room. Dad was gone, so we could do that! We were watching the baseball game and just chatting. I don't even remember what it was, but Alex was excited and trying to tell us something. Twin sis reminded him to slow down and start over so we could understand him. That's when it hit me... Unbelievable... Do you know how many speech therapists we have seen that say the same thing!

All the worries and stresses over having twins. The messes, the expenses, the chaos... now, I get it! Alex has always had a built in therapist! A dang good one, too!

I always said that God gave us twins because he knew we could handle it. I know he's laughed his butt off along the way. We've definitely blindsided him with some of the choices we've made. But even He needs a good laugh! I feel honored to have provided Him with some chuckles, and very thankful that he has given me the opportunity to do so.

We panicked at the thought of twins, we were terrified of Fragile X Syndrome, we were not prepared for this adventure, but look at the irony!! He knew what he was doing. Thank goodness someone did!

Thank God for our built in therapist!