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Monday, May 11, 2009

Derson's New Wheels

Many of you know Derson and his story. He is a 10 year old boy who is hydrocephalic, which in the simplest of terms means he has water on his brain. This causes pressure which affects development and abilities in many ways. Derson is unable to walk, though he used to pull himself to his feet in his crib when he was smaller. Now that he has gotten so big, he is not able to do so any longer. However, he does feed himself, and when he chooses to be, can be very interactive. He loves to laugh, especially when one of the older children is getting scolded about something, or when someone takes the time to sit with him and just chat. A great guy who was here last year managed to put together a wheelchair for Derson with pieces of other wheelchairs we had around here, and that held out for almost a year. I began looking at somehow getting another chair for him a few months ago...and to be honest, had no idea where to start. However, I was checking out the blog of our friends who work up in Cazale, and low-and-behold (is that even how you write that...I just realized I have NEVER written that phrase before!) there was a little story there about them having a chair in the states that they wanted to get on their container! On a whim, I wrote and said "hey, when that chair gets here, if you haven't already designated it for someone, we have a little boy who would love it!". Lori or Licia wrote back and said "we would love you to have it! And in the mean time, we have another one in storage you can have too!!" So, a few weeks later we met up with them in Port-au-Prince and Thym brought home Derson's new chair. It brought tears to my eyes when I saw how almost perfectly it fit him! I am always reminded how God knows....he knows our names, our needs, our hopes....way before we even realize them ourselves!


Derson and his stylin' new chair

There was no seatbelt for the chair, so I found some luggage straps, ripped apart some seams, made some new seams, and wa-la (again, how do you spell these expressions!?!??) Derson smiled much more than usual that day, as everyone came over to compliment him on his new wheels, and he burst into laughter and shook his head no when Grandma asked for a ride!

2 comments:

kayder1996 said...

Yah for Derson and his new chair. Such small things lend themselves to great dignity in life!

Tracy said...

What a great God we have! Derson looks great in that chair. How is he doing now?