A rough night lead to a challenging morning but all was not lost. Emmett had nightmares all night long. They were particularly cruel and unrelenting this time.

To make matters worse, he woke up around 5:30 AM with a nose bleed.

By the time the alarm went off, he was pretty much on the verge of a panic attack. He was shaking, nauseous and exhausted. He was already convinced that he was not going to be able to manage school today. We were supposed to bump things up to 2 hours a day this week and he was freaking out. The poor kid was completely over his limit and it wasn’t looking like a particularly good start to the week, even by Monday’s standards.

Rather than give up, I encouraged to get up and move around. He ultimately got dressed and decided that while he didn’t want to take on 2 hours today, he didn’t want to give up either. I ended up taking him to school and he stayed for about an hour and a half before I was back to pick him up.

Why is this awesome? Simply put, he didn’t give up. Having a better understanding of what he’s dealing with would help to put this into context but at this point, you’ll have to take my word for it. This was a major accomplishment.

On a side note, Emmett has talked about wanting me to talk about what he’s struggling with and he’s even suggested wanting to do a podcast episode about it as well. I’m hesitant to do that but I’ll chat with his therapist this week and get her thoughts. Emmett wants kids to know that they aren’t alone and I totally respect that. I just want to make sure. Whenever possible, I try to run this type of thing by someone more experienced than myself, prior to making a decision.

Bottom line is that Emmett didn’t quit today and he pushed through. While he didn’t go for the 2 hours we had aimed for, he still went and that wasn’t easy for him. I couldn’t be any prouder of him. This kid inspires me every single day.