November 1, 2008, 2:10 a.m., MT~

Dear Journal~

Tovah Ben Ami here.  Thought I'd write in here to let you know how our holiday celebration went last night.

Last night, Terri and I took the kids to our church, to the annual Boo Bash; this was the third year for the event, and we had a marvelous time. 

Many people attended; I'd say it was a howling success!

For fun, Terri and I dressed up.  I was the scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz; my wife, the good fairy (Glinda, I believe her name was).  We dressed the kids up, too; after all, Hallowe'en was designed for kids in mind.  Hyman was a firefighter; as for Nashi, she was Dorothy. 

Hyman was the only one out of the family who didn't take the Wizard of Oz theme; he was bound and determined to be a firefighter.  LOL

We got to our church about five, five thirty.  We wanted to be there before it got too crowded.  They were expecting a huge turnout; we wanted to find parking, so this is why we got there before it even started; even then, it was turning crowded with people.  It would probably only get more so as the evening wore on.  It did.  By eight, it was so crowded it was difficult to move around.

The crowds, of course, got Nashi all excited.  She'd sit there in her wheelchair, cooing happily just as she always does when in a good mood.  Sometimes she'd get so keyed up she'd start squealing in her unique way; it made smiles come to our faces.  It felt good knowing that she was clearly enjoying herself.  I personally think Nashi was enjoying being dressed up.  She looked so cute in her checkered blue-and-white Dorothy dress, her long, brown hair in done up in pigtails, and red shoes adorning her feet!

Nashi would start moving her head from side to side, a huge, drooly grin on her face, sightless eyes snapping and sparking in the sunlight, moving her arms up and down.  We knew she was happy; it made us happy, too.  It doesn't take much to make her happy; it made us feel good to know we were a part of that happiness that she was feeling.

Many people would say hello to our daughter.  They'd see us walking, and they'd comment on our costumes.  Some curious people would stare at Nashi's chair, or at her; it made her, us uncomfortable; however, most people didn't pay attention to that, thank goodness.  All they were interested in was how cute she looked dressed up.

Or getting to all the candy, other treats being offered to festival guests.

Hyman could care less.  He was more interested in the candy.  And there was a lot of it.  In addition to candy, he got a Beanie Baby turkey, tokens for video games or Mardi Gras style beads with bats or skeletons on them, glo-sticks, orange frisbees or other kid-friendly toys, and some people even gave him money.  He made out like a bandit; we all did.

Some of the costumes were rather creepy; I don't know why some people dressed up so garishly, especially for a church function.   I saw some vampires, many witches, a werewolf or two, even some zombies/other ghouls and ghastlies that I wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley.  They were there in good fun; guess they wanted to be a part of the festivities before heading out to even more Hallowe'en-style fun.

I am sure many people went to more than one Hallowe'en function; we decided to stick to just one.  I don't think we could take too much excitement, especially Nashi. 

Sometimes it's too much stimulation for her; she then gets loud, and we have to do everything in our power to try to quiet her.  LOL

Nashi gets more than enough stares from people; she doesn't need to draw any more attention to herself!

We do this to take our minds off of what Nashi goes through in life.  Life for her is not very fun.  She needs help in all areas of her life, doesn't get to go out very often (we try to keep her exposure to crowds to an absolute minimum, seeing that this is flu/cold season; we can't afford her to have her getting sick again), and spends most of her days whiling away in her wheelchair or in her hospital bed. 

Nashi doesn't have a very exciting life; she needs to have some fun instead of just laying there, cooped up in the house, like a little bump on a log!

If people can't handle our daughter, then they're the ones with the problem, not us.  We aren't going to hide Nashi from people; she needs to be exposed, stimulated!  She needs to be treated as normally as possible, even though life for her is anything but!

This is why we take her to church (temple) every Sunday.  This is why we take her to places like the mall, zoo, the local amusement park (or any festival).  She needs a break from her dilemma; we all do!

Well, I am going to go back to sleep now; it's way too early for me to be up!  I will write in here again; until later, this is Tovah saying so long for now!  Yeshua bless!

~Tovah.  :)