The best thing that I saw in 2006

The best thing that I saw in 2006 happened on December 31st at 11:45 p.m.. Melissa, Isaac and I were laying upstairs in the bed watching the New Year getting ready to arrive, when I asked him if he wanted to try and climb the stairs in the house we are renting. This is a big deal for us. We had made a deal with him that we would give him $20 when he was able to climb the stairs by himself. For those of you unfamiliar with his story that would sound relatively simple. Climb 10 or so stairs and you get $20. When Isaac was in the hospital, he went through chemo and was on high doses of medicines that broke down his muscle tissue. He got to the the point where he couldn't walk at all and was in a wheel chair for most of the summer. Gradually his muscle tissue built back up until finally he could walk without his walker. He experienced a couple of big falls because his muscles would just give out on him. Anyway, he got out of the hospital and we moved into a rental house while he still continues his treatments. The house is two stories and for the first couple of months I carried him up and down the stairs. He eventually got to where he could crawl up and down the stairs and let's just say that this has been better for my back. As incentive for him to keep working at getting his muscles back, we made the $20 deal with him. So last night at 11:45 p.m., Isaac walked all the way up the stairs by himself. It was like watching him take his first steps all over again and was the best thing that I saw this past year.