“Mom, sometimes, when I look at Nichole she is so cute that I feel like crying because my heart is so full of love.” There are times I look at my children and I feel like crying because of the intense love I feel for them. It is a love so hard to contain that it spills out in tears. I get this feeling, I am a mom. However, coming out of the mouth of Ellie, my 6-year-old daughter, it surprised … [Read more...]
Body and Soul, She Is Marvelously Made
When my daughter was born with Down syndrome, our friends came to visit us at the hospital. Our oldest daughter was staying with them and they had brought Ellie to meet her baby sister. Our friends brought their daughter along too, she was the same age as our oldest, and like our youngest, she has Down syndrome. While we visited in the hospital room, we talked about how God had orchestrated … [Read more...]
Breath Of Heaven the Special Needs Way
Amy Grant’s Christmas CD has been my favorite since it first came out in 1994. I've listened to it so many times the last 21 years that as soon as the first chords of one of the songs comes up on the radio, I know right away it's one of Amy’s. You know it was a great album when those songs are still playing today. Eight Christmases ago, my daughter was only two months old when she … [Read more...]
I Am Thankful: The Special Needs Way
When my daughter was born with Down syndrome, I never imagined that someday I would be thankful for her diagnosis. At the time of her birth, our future seemed bleak and limited. But disability was so different from what I thought it would be, and years later, there is so much I am thankful for. I am thankful disability is not the horrible green eyed monster I thought it was I was scared … [Read more...]
For the Times When Others Don’t Get It
Dear special needs parent, Some people will never get what it is like to walk in our shoes. No matter how many times we try to explain our situation, our child, the challenges our family has to face—no matter how many details we share—the reality is that most people won’t get it. And some people might think we are exaggerating, or that we are not doing enough, and we might feel judged by their … [Read more...]
You Are Not a Failure
“I feel like such a failure, I mean, I’m trying to do everything I can to get services for my son but I’m not getting anywhere. His behaviors are getting so challenging. It’s just been….hard. My house is a mess, I forgot to pay for a school field trip, we ran out of clean underwear and my husband and I are fighting all the time.” She sits across from me at Panera with a bread bowl, she stirs the … [Read more...]