The Placard

For sometime now, I have been dealing with parking and hauling children and gear the way that everyone else does, as just one of those things you deal with.  It has been getting harder and harder, the bigger and no-more mobile that Christian gets.  Many people suggested that I get a handicap placard for my car, since Christian would definitely qualify for one, but I didn't think that was fair.  Christian still had me, and I am more than capable of walking across a parking lot, no matter what, or who, I am lugging along.  It has always bothered me when people who don't need it, park in a handicapped spot anyway, and so I held out longer than I should of.  Slowly, I began to realize that I might, in fact, be wrong.

Now that Christian is more mobile in his walker, we have been trying to have him walk in it as much as possible.  This summer, I took the walker with me whenever we went to places that Christian could use it, the park, play areas, we even thought about taking it to the movie theater.  He also uses it every time he goes to school.  The only problem with that strategy was parking.  I would often have to park far away from our destination, and Christian would be worn out before we made it in.  Or we would park somewhere with gravel, or some other ground cover that made it difficult, or even impossible for Christian to use his walker.  We would finally make it to the front of the building, and I would glance at the empty handicapped parking space, and feel rather foolish.

So recently, I finally began the process of getting a placard for my car.  It didn't seem too difficult.  I had to get a form from the DMV, have Christian's doctor sign it, and turn the form back in.  Should be simple right?  The first step was getting the form at the DMV.  I waited for a day when the kids were in school, and got ready to wait in line.  Luckily, I only had to wait about twenty minutes, not my worst time at the DMV.  When I finally got to the counter and explained I was applying for a placard, the woman behind the counter pointed to a rack by the door and said "They're over there."  So it turns out I had wasted some time, but worse things have happened.  I hurried over to get Christian's doctor to sign the form, which miraculously, she was able to do right away.  I was on my way back to drop it off, and called to make sure I didn't need anything else.  It turns out that I did; I needed Christian.

The DMV had to take Christian's picture to have on file, since the placard was for him.  Well taking Christian to the DMV sounded like absolutely no fun, so I put if of for weeks.  Today  I decided to suck it up, and get it over with.  I had both kids with me, and so I came prepared.  We had snacks, drinks, toys, and coloring books.  It was quite a process just to get them in the door and situated with all their distractions.  And then, just like that, it was my turn.  I handed in the form, and she asked me to take Christian over to the chair you sit in to have your driver's license picture taken.  He looked so tiny, and his head barely reached the top of the chair, but he sat there all by himself, like such a big boy.  He even looked right at the camera, with a big smile, and said "Cheese-a-muh-weeze-a!"

All I had to do was sign a paper, and we were done.  It took longer to get the kids and all their accoutrements loaded back up, than it did to get our business concluded.  Just before the DMV worker had finished entering all of Christian's information, she double checked to make sure I wanted a permanent placard.  I looked over at my big guy, sitting in a chair all by himself, and said "Sure, but I don't think we will need it much longer."  She just checked the box on the form, and handed me my paperwork, not understanding the significance the moment held for me.  So now Christian doesn't have so far to walk, but like I said, I don't think we will have to worry about it for long.  The day I don't need the placard, will be beautiful indeed.