today i had a conversation with a new friend of mine who also has a special needs kiddo....we were talking about traveling...this family has pretty much kept to home base because of the special needs if the precious little boy. but today, we talked about OPENING our world and not letting the specialness of our kids hinder or hold us back! these kids NEED that time away from home and to BE "normal". she had heard that we went out of town this past weekend to WICHITA FALLS, TX that is 7 hour dr with matthew on oxygen, pulse ox and repiratory meds because he was REALLY SICK and she said, "if she can, so can i!" and as we talked, i gave her some pointers on what she needed to MAKE SURE she brought with her and i offered her our playpen, so that her little one can sleep in....and guess what?! she decided to make a trip that she was originally going to do BY HERSELF with her FAMILY!!! that is AWESOME!! we take matthew EVERYWHERE!! very rarely do we stay home UNLESS it is during the winter months and it is rsv, cold and flu season...then, we tend to stay pretty close to home...but that is just SMART, YOU KNOW? anyway, the point is, we HAVE to take these chances with our special kids...if we keep them in a bubble all their lives, they will NEVER learn to LIVE!!! sooo, the good thing that came about is that we talked and she felt AT EASE taking her little one too!! that made me feel soooo good!