Nifty Neighbors.. I Am Blessed.

A nasty letter made the front page of yahoo today.  You can read about it here.  And a bit more with video on Huffpost.  It is hateful.  It is sad. In a nut shell shell the neighbor of an autistic boy thinks the young man should be euthanized.  One thing that is important to remember is that the other neighbors rallied around this family with the autistic child.  Most people are not like this one neighbor.   So at this point I started thinking about my fantastic neighbors and felt the need to share.  Because it is always the bad ones that make the press.

---  I have written about this one before but on one warm summer day, my son was playing super soakers in the backyard.  He decided to flee to the neighbor, open the front door and open "water" in their living room with the super soaker.. on their TV.  The first thankful item is that their attack dogs did not attack.  The mom couldn't believe this.   (Thank you for your protection Jesus.)  The second was that the TV was not damaged.  (At least they told me it was not.)  But they were spectacular.  They forgave us without a second though AND.. brought US cookies.  Who does that??  Only fabulous neighbors.

--- There is an elderly gentleman who lives across the street.  He likes to talk. The kid likes to talk.  Sometimes they can not understand each other but there is always a grand conversation going on.  He is so nice to the kid.  And... he remembered when kid's birthday was a few years ago and brought him a gift.  (He does not drive anymore either.)  Whether the present was tucked away in his basement or he went out to get it somehow, I don't know. But it was very appropriate.  It was a paper, pencil, sharpener combo packet with super heroes on it!

---  Next door is a lovely woman who always has a special packet of Halloween treats for the kid and actually for all the neighborhood children. She figured out somehow that we are on the GFCF diet.  The next year, she had a full size box of GFCF animals crackers waiting for him. (I forgot to mention..At one point the kid has also gone in this woman's house unannounced, when we were talking on her porch.  He went in and hid under one of the her beds... again.. forgiveness.)

--- One time many years ago, I went to the high school down the street for a walk with the kid.  On the way home he melted down.  I could not really even get him home.  I did manage to get to our street but he plopped down with a major tantrum.  A neighbor (who we did not know) was outside with someone who had stopped at their house and this stranger offered to take us the rest of the way home.  So with kid screaming bloody murder, she allowed us in the back of her car and took us about 10 more houses north which would have been an eternity on foot.

--- And finally, another neighbor recently gave kid the job of taking care of his cats.  To the tune of $20 per weekend.  We are going to frame that $20.. because it was so much more than the money to him.  It was confidence of a job well done.  And it meant so much to me that a neighbor would give MY kid this opportunity.

They are not all bad apples.  In fact most are not.  And I am sure I have more instances I can't think of at the moment.  We are blessed.