When you Imagine Dragons… Imagine Tears

Zander loves Imagine Dragons. He listens to their music all the time, to the point of annoyance for the rest of us. I looked up concerts a few years ago to see if they would be playing in Utah, and they weren’t at the time, but I asked my sister to keep an eye out for me (she goes to a lot of concerts). She called me over the summer to tell me they were coming this year in the fall, I was so excited! I looked up tickets, they were crazy expensive. I figured we wouldn't be able to make it work. Then I was down in Salt Lake for something and heard on the radio you could enter to win tickets! I went to the website, entered, and told everyone I knew to enter also. Then I forgot about it. 

I saw a few people post over the weekend from the concert and was so bummed, we had missed it. On Monday, as I was anxiously engaged in my homework efforts, I received a text: Congratulations! You won two tickets to Imagine Dragons for tomorrow night! WHAT?! I thought it might be a scam, but I checked the email and followed the instructions they sent, and everything seemed ok. A few hours later I had the tickets!

I was out of my mind excited. I couldn’t wait for Zander to come home so I could tell him. I made him a little card to break the news. 

He went nuts. He was so excited! I was so excited! 

I picked him up from school and we headed down to the concert. Both of us were bouncing in our seats. The concert was amazing! It was completely packed with tons of kids and families. The music was great, and the lights and special effects were awesome. We got swag, we danced, we sang, I secretly tried to record Zander singing along but he kept catching me and swatting the phone away. We had so much fun.

I could just be telling you about an awesome concert… but there's more. This is actually a story about miracles…

If you’ve been following along, you know things with Zander are hard. Almost always. 

Last night I got to spend an entire night with my kid, who just seemed like a regular kid. There was no fighting, no tantrums, no drama. Just fun. I got to see him in a way I have never been able to before, without all the layers of his disability. Underneath all the hard stuff is a really awesome, incredible, funny child, who I adore. I have caught glimpses of that kid over the years, but they are few and far between. For the first time ever, we spent hours just enjoying being together. He hugged me over and over and told me ‘thank you’. He giggled and danced (sort of). 

I cried... Several times. It felt so amazing to just be his mom and to have fun together. 

When I asked him this morning what his favorite part was, he said, “You. You made it so fun. You were dancing around, and even though I don’t like dancing I did, and then it was even more fun.” He was my favorite part too.