First Time for Everything
Tonight we had our first taste of what it feels like to be let down by the systems that are supposed to be helping us. One night a week, for 4 hours, we receive respite services for Giovanni. During this time, my husband and I do things that can be difficult to do with Giovanni...grocery shopping, running errands, having a cup of coffee and enjoying each others company...things like that. Each week we look forward to this time, as it gets my husband out of "stay at home dad mode" and allows us to be a couple for a few hours. Tonight that abruptly ended.
Our respite worker, who Giovanni has grown to love, didn't show up. My poor little man was watching out the window for her for 45 minutes, anxiously waiting to play with his "friend." I finally sent her a text and asked if she was still coming. About 10 minutes go by and I finally get a response that she is no longer working for the agency so she isn't coming. No notice, no nothing.
My heart absolutely broke for Giovanni. He refused to do anything but watch out the window as he wanted to wait for his friend. How do you explain to a 3 year old that his friend isn't ever coming back??
After about an hour, we finally convinced him to come away from the window and go for a ride in the car. To turn lemons into lemonade, we took him out for his first Hibachi experience, and then for ice cream. As long as we have each other, we can get through anything