One day David came in and pulled me outside to look at a skateboard sitting on our sidewalk.
I asked where that had come from. He pointed across the street. I told him he couldn't just take things from other people’s yards, but of course he didn’t understand. In the orphanage, a child could play with anything in the yard.
He told me, “Me, me, me!” He wanted a skateboard.
I decided we could go to town and look for one. We went into several stores and finally found one that he liked.
When we got home, he tried it out. He did just fine for a while and then he fell off. He began crying and he ran into his bedroom.
He didn’t want supper, so we took him to the hospital for an x-ray. It turned out he had a broken arm.
There was no way to explain the cast that was going to be put on, along with a sling. That was a difficult time.
When it was time to have the cast removed, we had the interpreter explain the saw that would be used and assure David that his arm would not be taken off.
All was well … and the skateboard went to the Goodwill.
