Blessings in Disguise

A couple months back a friend of mine who has two special needs children posted a question on her Facebook page. She talked about how sometimes as special needs parents we tend to see the ways other people do not understand our children, and the ways that people don’t care. Instead of focusing on the bad she asked for stories of people (strangers) who may have been a “blessing in disguise” – someone who may have helped you in a time of need with your special needs child.

I loved this idea and thought back to a day awhile back when my two-year old autistic son was having a melt down at Chick-fil-a…

It had been a long day already and I thought that letting him run around the play place would help. We parked, walked in, and ordered. Everything was going great until we sat down and I set up the food.

That was when the meltdown started. Screaming kicking, crying. I hadn’t even had a bite of my food yet! Everyone was looking at us, so I took him out of the high chair and went into the ladies’ room to help calm him down for a few minutes. We talked, he finished crying and calmed down a bit, and we walked back out. I put him back in the high chair and sat down to eat.

Only two minutes later it stated again, only this time worse. Crying, screaming, kicking and more. The man sitting behind us was glaring at me. I decided it was time to leave, but I couldn’t even leave my son to pack up our food. By this time he had almost tipped over his high chair so I took him out. He laid on the floor continuing his meltdown.

Then out of nowhere this lady with a kind smile came behind me and packed all our food up. She made it so nothing would spill and handed it over to me. I thanked her profusely, amazed at her non-judging smile and walked out the door with my son. It was such a small thing, but it made my day and was something that I hope to never forget. She was my little blessing in disguise!

I know it’s hard at times to see the good in people – especially when we hear so many bad stories about others being mean or bullying special needs children. But I am so glad that God sends us those little blessings in disguise at just the right times that we need it!

– Kathryn Sneed

What are YOUR stories? Did you ever have someone be your “blessing in disguise”?