I have two boys that are adopted. They are both great boys unique and wild in every way. Every kid has their own challenges and in the case of our two adopted boys each came with something unique. We have one that came with ADHD, the other a Sensory Disorder which is on the spectrum.
This story is about our son with the sensory disorder. Night times have been challenging enough to drive a parent crazy. It started with sneaking the computer or Nintendo switch into his room at night. He would hide them under his pillow then play them from bedtime until it was time to go to school in the morning. Obviously not desirable. Then it became reading books, same thing all night long. Then drawing, then playing games. Again, all night long. Then there was the water, he has trouble getting up at night if he drinks a lot of water. You know where this is going. But, sneaking more water any way he can and of course mom and dad knowing where more water leads. We want him to stop drinking fluids by a certain hour. But he finds a way to sneak into the bathroom and drinks out of an old spray bottle (makes me want to vomit thinking about it). Then there is the picking with fingernail clippers, tweezers and pins. That on top of chewing his toenails. I’ve pulled hair out more than once.
Anyhow, he goes to bed tonight. I checked on him about 11 PM and he looks dead asleep.
I have struggled sleeping a lot here and there. Tonight, I wasn’t exactly tired, but I felt I needed to take care of a project. I started working on it and it drug on for a few hours. Sometime between 1 and 2 in the morning, I heard some noise coming from one of the boy’s rooms. I didn’t think anything of it because neither of them always sleep through the night. It’s common for them to get up and do stuff. Then I heard a bang. Ok, I was getting up to see what’s going on. I expected they were throwing stuff in their room or walking around in the dark and knocked something off a shelf. But no, that is not what I found.
As I walked up to the boys’ rooms, I could tell it was coming from my son with the sensory disorder. I opened the door and walked in. I couldn’t see him anywhere. He was not in bed, not in the middle of the floor, not on his chair, not in his closet, not behind the door, or anywhere. I started to wonder if he was crawling under his bed. I called for him and got no response. I called for him again and heard his voice from the corner of his room. I thought he might be behind his chair. As I walked closer, I said where are you? He replied here. It was coming from the window. I lifted the blinds and there he was. The window seal was about eyebrow high, and he was holding onto the window seal.
Let me expound. It was between 1 AM and 2 AM. It is 25 degrees outside. He was barefoot, in a t-shirt, and outside his wide-open bedroom window. He was stuck outside our locked house. I snowed 2 inches the night before. I asked him to climb back in. He couldn’t. He asked to be let in the front door. I walked out the front door. He was stuck standing on his tiptoes on top of the hose reel while clinging to his widow seal, which again was too high for him to climb through. As I let him in, I asked what he was thinking. Why did he do that? He said he was thirsty and wanted to get snow to eat for water.
I don’t even know what to say. I was terrified he could have frozen to death tonight. Had I not been awake, had he been unable to get back in the house, had he not rang the doorbell or him chosen not to ring it, had it not woken us up or we not heard it; he easily could have frozen to death tonight. I don’t think he realizes that. And it makes me sick to think of it.
Why do we do the things we do? Maybe staying up tonight was inspiration, a blessing, a bitter cold blessing.
It may be time to add a sensor to his window.