October 28

Dusty and I went to Blacksburg for a wedding last weekend. The groom was one of his friends growing up and all of his other friends were coming with their girlfriends. We found out about it a long time ago (like when I was still in the hospital), but heard that it was going to be on a farm and nothing about that sounded "accessible." (And I definitely didn't want to ask and put another thing on the bride's plate). I told Dusty to just go and have a good time and I made plans to go to my college's homecoming. Well, when my plans started to fall through, the other girlfriends looked into the wedding details a little closer. As the weekend approached, I found myself wanting to go more and more...why would I say no to something I wouldn't have even thought twice about missing before I got sick? Turns out, the bride and groom had even looked into accessible venues with me in mind, so I'm even more thankful it worked out for me to go. 

I feel like so often, people don't understand that before I go anywhere, I have to plan ahead...I have to make sure there's parking, no stairs to get into whatever building I'm going to, that there actually is a wheelchair accessible bathroom, etc. So when someone actually takes that into consideration, it means so much to me. Hell, even our airbnb was accessible! I mean, yeah, I got bumped up a flight of stairs, but only because Dusty's friends were kind enough to give us the master bedroom on the upstairs level. The whole weekend just seemed so...normal. And that doesn't happen too often anymore. 

I got to get ready with the girls while the guys did...who even knows what. And of course, we got to twist our boyfriends arms into taking tons of pictures. Our house was only a couple miles away from the venue, so like usual, we were cutting it close on time. We got there and pretty much everyone was already sitting outside and ready for the ceremony to begin. Dusty and I had to park and navigate through a gravel parking lot (which is REALLY DIFFICULT) before taking our spots. We were having even more trouble than usual, getting those wheels to move in the rocks. Finally, we get all the way to the other side of the lot before Dusty (in his not so quite voice) says "are you serious?! You had one tire locked this whole time!" And that is how everyone knew we had arrived. 

It was a beautiful wedding and it was incredibly fun...lots of catching up with different people and plenty of dancing. Dusty and I are always on the dance floor at weddings. I can't even tell you how many perfect wedding pictures we have of us dancing. And although we still made it out for a good number of songs, I was still fighting back a little emotion, knowing that it just wasn't the same.  How do you slow dance in a wheelchair? The second to last song was a slow one and Dusty and I found ourselves on the corner of the dance floor. Everyone was saying their goodbyes or trying to catch the last couple songs before heading home. Dusty and I were just talking because we hadn't really been able to do much when the DJ played a slower song. When he asked me if I wanted to dance, I just kind of laughed. But he didn't. He said "come on, let's try it." And within a few seconds he had helped me stand up so we could dance. My back was to everyone, so I didn't really know what everyone was up to, but I also really wasn't concerned. For a few minutes, it was just us...dancing like we always have. When the song ended, I sat back down and was swept away by friends to catch the last fast song. At the end of the night, Dusty said he had so many people come up to him saying how sweet our dance was and everyone had teared up or taken pictures. I thought he was being dramatic because he hates having much attention on himself, but then I had some friends send me pictures. I was so happy someone was able to capture that moment for us. One second I'm bummed I can't dance like I used to and the next, Dusty shows me that I can and that there's no such thing as "can't."