This is a hard post to write because it’s a big issue, it’s something I am constantly working on, an ongoing journey that changes along with the needs of my family. This is not a post about parenting kids with disabilities, or about parenting adopted kids who live with the trauma from their past, or even a post about parenting children with mental health issues. But it is a post about parenting in … [Read more...]
Special Needs Parent, You Still Matter
I’m going to tell you something now, and you might want to sit down before I do: You still matter. And not just matter—you are precious. Author Julie Barnhill reminds us that this is true, even amidst painful circumstances: “God watched over our construction from toes to fingertips to hair roots, and he has designed each of us to be exquisite, unequaled, and beyond compare. But it will always be … [Read more...]
Crucial Truth About Special Needs and Adoption
She turned thirteen this week. That's ten birthdays together. . . thousands of days and experiences since the day my oldest daughter moved into my home. On her birthdays, when I look through her baby pictures and reminisce, there is this gap. We've got just six pictures of her life from birth to 2 1/2 years. In those moments, the reality of loss, special needs and adoption feels so acute. Most … [Read more...]
Healing Prayers and Promises in Disability Parenting
I just finished reading a national bestseller on prayer that, frankly, was very hard to finish. What grieved me most was a story about a pastor who counseled a young couple of a child with autism. The pastor opened his Bible to a random page, read a random passage of scripture about Abraham’s offspring forever speaking God’s word, and then claimed it as a promise that this couple’s nonverbal child … [Read more...]
Trusting In God In the Midst of Trial
Stephen was stoned to death. He trusted in God completely, even as he was being falsely accused, he trusted in God and he still lost his life. My husband preached about Stephen on Sunday and I kept thinking about our own family, our own trials, our own suffering, how disability impacts us and how often I cry out to God to help me, to help our family. Trusting in God in the midst of trial … [Read more...]
When Life Is Not a Hallmark Card
It’s true. Misery loves company. And probably the reason one of my favorite shows is The Middle, a sitcom about the misadventures of a mid-western family not very unlike my own. Duct-taped appliances? Special needs teens and a seat-of-the-pants mother? Check. It’s a show that makes me laugh because the Hecks (or rather their script writers) “get it”. Life is a daily walk into the precarious … [Read more...]