Matt

I work cleaning houses and offices. I have done this for the past couple of years and after the first initial shock to my body at how strenuous it is to my body, (which only took 6 months to get used to) I have found it to be THE most rewarding job I have had in my working life. (other than being a mom, but that really isn't a job is it?)

It has much less emotional stress than working in an office or as a nurse, especially a night nurse. It just seems to suit me well. Another good thing about it is that people are flexible and you can pick the time of day you want to work.

I had myself in a rut when I finally decided to try this. I thought that I'd never be able to do much of anything because I couldn't handle the stress with my health issues. Well, I and my husband prayed about it and one day I woke up and thought, "I'm going to clean houses!"
"WHAT???!?!" thought my other self, "Are you NUTS? You can't clean houses, you barely have the energy of a gnat somedays, how on earth are you going to do something as physical as that?"
I thought to myself for a while..."Um...ER.....UM...." (you can tell that thinking is quite hard for me sometimes...especially when I'm having a battle between the good and bad me.)
Finally, I spoke up and said to myself, "Well, I'm going to give it a shot. With a lot of prayer, perhaps the right people will come along in my life and cleaning will not be hard at all."

I posted an advertisement in the local paper..."DUST BUNNY CLEANING CO." We make cleaning easy! Homes, Offices, Businesses. Call for more information. ( Bear in mind at this time there was no "WE", other than the me that said I could do it... and the me that said I couldn't!)

Two days went by and I got a call...I kept getting calls...each one wanting a home cleaned or an office....I kept praying and I kept taking appointments, every time it seemed that they were sent by God. One was a relative of my husband, one was a woman who had recovered from cancer only to find that the chemo had left her heart weak and she could not do housework. One was my husband's boss who needed someone he could trust to clean the office, and then there was Matt's family.

Matt's mother called one day and was curious about us. Oh wait, I forgot to tell you that by this time, I had enlisted my mother to work part-time with me on some of the homes as she was in need of something to keep her mind off dad's retirement and the fact that he would be home ALL-THE-TIME ( Those of us with parents at retirement age understand this theme so well.) so when Matt's mother called, it was "US."
I told her about our cleaning experience which was only our own homes and a few people that we had just picked up cleaning jobs from, but that we were thorough and did a good job. She said in a kind of shy voice, "Well, I just need help. I have a family of 4 handicapped children that I've adopted and I just can't keep up." I accepted the first appointment on a trial-run.

So, we came to this household and we met the family...the first few cleanings we kept saying to ourselves..."Poor woman, how can she do this? She is overwhelmed with caring for these kids!"
All 4 of the children have Down Syndrome. (I say children, but the oldest is a year younger than my age of 41 and the youngest is 21, but they look to her as a young child would.)
One child had been extremely ill a year before we came and he had turned "within himself" whether from nerve damage or just the lack of ability to cope with life. She said it started not long after 9-11 and he was so concerned with why people do mean things to other people. He was an active, outgoing, bubbly, hyper-active boy until he became ill. Now, most of the time he stands and stares into space and rocks back and forth. She is very sad over the loss of her son's reasoning, but she cares for him as if he were always this way and forces him to speak a few words even though he really doesn't want to.

The two girls are both individuals, one can care for herself and reads and writes and although her words are hard to decypher, she gives it her best and she is such a sweetheart. We have learned a lot about the love these girls have to share and are happy to be on both the giving and recieving end of their love.

THEN THERE'S MATT.....

This boy, Oh my....he makes one's heart sing! Matt is 22, small and full of joy. Matt from day one took a shine to "The Ladies" as he calls us. On several occasions, we have gotten there before he has gotten out of bed in the mornings. His mother will call, "MAAAaaaaatt, the ladies are here!" On which he will raise his head and say, "Oh, good morning ladies! I didn't think I would be asleep when you got here, I have been looking forward to today, you know today is Monday, right? Remember? Yes, you remember, you always come on mondays, except for Christmas, if Christmas is on a Monday, you won't come, but that's ok, you will come the next monday after Christmas, right? Yes, you will. Today is a blue day, I am going to wear a blue shirt today. Look YOU have a blue shirt on too! Um..how is my friend Kade doing? My buddy? Is he doing good?Yes, I am sure he is Ok. I have a cat here, you see? This is Joe, remember Joe? Yes, you remember Joe he's been here for a lon-...." Well, you get the picture.

Matt seems to never have a bad day...a bad day for him is if he doesn't get to plan at least one meal of the day. He thinks about food (especially Thanksgiving dinner) all the time. He plans and plots and won't go anywhere unless he knows he can go to Jack in the Box or Wendy's or Taco Bell or any other of the various food chains and cafes in our area. He helps his mother plan her day around each meal and will even bring her pictures out of magazines of things he would like to eat next.

When we arrive in the mornings, he prepares coffee for us using an electric coffee grinder and a coffee maker. (sometimes it could knock the socks off a mad bull!) Matt loves his coffee and if you're not a coffee drinker, you soon will be around Matt. He makes it known how good coffee is for you. Perhaps drinking all that caffiene is why he can talk non-stop!

It's hard to clean around Matt...He comes in with his breakfast plate and sits on the edge of the bathtub talking 100 miles a minute while eating. He tells us how good we are cleaning and about his graduation in 2005 from highschool. "I did it! I won!" Practically every week we get to see his robe and diploma and hear about his music teacher that lets all the graduating students return each Christmas to sing the "awewuya kworus" (Haleluja Chorus) He tells us how good his food is, he tells us how we should eat the type of foods he eats, he tells us about spiderman and woody (the cowboy doll out of Toy Story.) That doll, by the way, goes everywhere with him. He's resorted to putting him in a book bag so that his mother doesn't tell him that he's too old for that and people don't want to see him with it. Everyone loves to watch him and his Woody though and last week, one of the neighbors had been to a yard sale, found a giant Woody doll and bought it for him. I was there when she brought it but Matt wasn't. I am sure that will be my next story.

When I pull out the vacuum out and begin to vacuum, he takes mad flying leaps across the room and flies over the vacuum and lights on the floor in the most delightful spiderman pose you've ever seen! I'm always afraid he's going to get wound up in the cord and take a spill, but he always seems to escape a harrowing experience.

Whatever sport is in season is Matt's favorite. His father makes sure to take him to the local college to watch baseball, basketball or football games. His father related the last baseball game he went to as this:
"Matt loves to dance to one special song they play at the games. He will get up and wriggle his little rear end (he wears a boys size 16 so yes, it's a little rear end) and raise his index finger on both hands and dance. This time though, there were some teen-age girls behind us that Matt was sort of visiting with. As he jumped up to dance, one of the girls said, "YOU GO GUY!" Which was all Matt needed to begin a huge jive session. I finally had to say, 'Matt! Enough!' "

Of course, Matt is always 6-inches away when anyone is talking about him to which his response is either, "WHA..??!?!! MEE??!?!" or, "I heard that! You were talking about me!"

I've heard his mother warn him on what is the proper and what is not the proper ways to act. I have heard her say many times..."Matt, you just don't go around KISSING all the women!" To which nobody can stop laughing and Matt again says..."WHA...?!?! MEE??!?! I don't do that!" smiling all the while.

This past cleaning day, his dad was going to town and he had run through a huge list of things they were going to do when they got there. Matt looked at his dad and said, "Well, have I got a surprise for you! The ladies are coming and I'm not going!" Matt never misses a day with his dad so this was a real surprise to him. But then, as it got closer to noon Matt thought maybe he could talk dad into goint to eat somewhere so he decided to go after all.
As he was about to leave with his dad to go to town, he came in to tell us goodbye. "One last hug. " he said. "Sure, Matt." was our reply. We gave him our hugs and he took a deep breath and sighed long and peacefully. "Well, I had better be going, see you next week!"

It has been 2 years since we began our cleaning experiences with Matt. Each week we look forward to the visits and each week we come home more blessed for being there. I think my prayers paid off! The biggest news is it's easy to see how Matt's mother does all those things for her family. What love they ALL have to give one another!

Sorry this is so long.
I'm sure over time you will hear a lot about Matt's antics. He seems to be one of the good things in life!