The first day of school was today. I load up my two kids with book bags, lunches and enough school supplies to make a mule stagger. My daughter walks to the bus stop on on her own. (It's soooo not cool, you know, for mom to tag along to the bus stop.) I watch her, forehead to glass, from our upstairs window. She turns three times to look back with a strange smile on her face, a mix of … [Read more...]
Honoring Special Needs Parents Who Paved the Way for Us
The Education for All Handicapped Children Act was enacted in 1975, just two years before my sister with Down Syndrome was born. Public Law 94-142 was still new to our small town in Oklahoma when my mom sat down for her first IEP meeting in 1983, when it was time for my sister to start kindergarten. She talked with a young teacher who wasn't trained in special education, had never taught a student … [Read more...]
Indispensable
"God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. The parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor." (1 Corinthians 12:18-23) Sitting with my son through an entire church service is no easy task. As a matter of statistical fact, … [Read more...]
Mourning Turned to Dancing
Years ago, as a young mother of a son with autism and moderate intellectual disability (and the behaviors that accompanied those challenges), I vividly remember being blown away by the Psalms. On hard days I opened my Bible to this section to re-read words that matched my own anger, frustration, and wavering faith in God’s presence. Psalm 13 (The Message) is a good example: Long enough, GOD— … [Read more...]
Not So Ordinary Miracles
A child playing with friends, a little girl having a conversation with her mother, a middle school boy going to the bathroom by himself, a father and son playing catch, to some this may seem very ordinary. But to others this would be a miracle. It’s amazing what the human mind is conditioned to believe what is ordinary and what is a miracle. Our son Connor would speak from the time of he was 1 … [Read more...]
Peaches of Promise
Do you ever doubt yourself as a parent of a child with special needs? Ever feel like a failure as a spouse? Wonder why you can’t get it right more often with your friends? Feel like you’re missing the mark as a follower of Jesus? I do. Not every day. But often enough. I want to be the best mom, most loving wife, true-blue friend, and role-model Christian. Instead, I find myself losing my … [Read more...]