by Hope
The week before Thanksgiving, Sea Cadet went out in the pouring rain to visit the local fire station. He came back that night excited about the possibility of becoming a volunteer fire fighter.
One week later, he was unanimously voted onto the force and when we returned from Texas, he was fitted for his uniform, given his pager and made official. He’s already been out on several calls this week, one of them at 3am!
A Short Version of Sea Cadet’s Background
If you have followed me for a while, this will be repeat information, but if not, I wanted to give you a brief history of where Sea Cadet came from.
Sea Cadet (and his identical twin brother, History Buff) were placed with me as foster kids when they were 12 years old. Sea Cadet, in particular, faced several challenges. He suffered from multiple delays and when he arrived at my home with his stuff in black trash bags was performing academically at a 3rd/4th grade level.
He was in speech to help people understand him better, had a dedicated education aid in all his classes with him, couldn’t write and so on. You get the point. In fact, at the first IEP meeting I attended for him, their goal for him was to be able to ride the public buses by himself.
At the end of his eighth grade year, social services gave me special permission to pull him out and homeschool him because there was a real fear that if he went to high school environment at the level he was at, we would lose him to some very negative influences.
And Now Today
He is just 9 months from completing his Advanced EMT certification, he is working part time (and waking himself up to get there on time consistently,) he has a car that he pays for and maintains, he pays his own insurance and cell phone bills and he has saved a nest egg emergency fund for his car maintenance and in anticipation of moving out next fall. And now, he is a volunteer firefighter!
And this is the kid that they set his highest goal as “riding the public bus by himself.” He is just a living example that with patience, the right path and continued flexibility to accommodate someone’s needs…things are not always what they seem.
I am one proud mama. This kid will graduate with no student loan debt. He’s currently acing all his tests. And he continues to take on more on his own initiative. There are just some days that I am overwhelmed with how blessed I have been to have the most amazing kids. And they continue to make me want to do better, make me want to do more, be more for them!
Hope is a creative, solutions-focused business manager helping clients grow their business and work more efficiently by leveraging expertise in project management, digital marketing, & tech solutions. She’s recently become an empty nester as her 5 foster/adoptive kids have spread their wings. She lives with her 5 dogs in a small town in NE Georgia and prefers the mountains to the beaches any day. She struggles with the travel bug and is doing her best to help each of her kids as their finish schooling and become independent (but it’s hard!) She has run her own consulting company for almost twenty years! Hope began sharing her journey with the BAD community in the Spring of 2015 and feels like she has finally in a place to really focus on making wise financial decisions.
Wonderful job Sea Cadet and Mom! You both should be very proud.
Awesome to hear! Passing EMT certifications is no joke – I have a sibling who is starting a doctorate degree soon and still maintains he put more time and effort into his EMT certification than any class he’s encountered so far.
He is a volunteer EMT and firefighter in a small town. He and a bunch of his friends started a resurgence of younger residents in town to step to the plate and assist in these key roles. I was very proud a few years ago when all the pagers went off during a big family Christmas celebration and it was the under-25 crowd that left to respond to the call.
I admire firefighters, it was a part of my job as an engineer at a chemical plant, being on the fire brigade. I was pretty awful at finding mannequins in the simulated smoke house so I got booted to the medical team where I was more talented. Fighting fires while wearing self contained breathing gear is claustrophobic and frightening. It isn’t like the heroic TV shows and movies. It is dangerous and scary to be only a few feet from certain death protected only by water hoses and fog nozzles. I did it several times and hated it. Good on him, he’s a hero!
That’s fabulous! Congrats to Sea Cadet on his achievements! And I’m sure he couldn’t have done it without you!
Love, love reading this! Congratulations to you and Sea Cadet. I have two kids who are 23 and 20. Both are employed doing something they love and supporting themselves. I know we are not “done” being parents but it sure feels good to know so far, so good.
I would reconsider publishing your son’s personal medical and developmental information on a public website. You never know when an employer, classmate, date, or insurance company may come upon this and hold it against him.
Yeah, it’s disrespectful, icky, and dangerous. He is an adult; he gets to control the narrative of his life story.
That is wonderful!
He has accomplished a great deal; you both have a lot to be proud of.