The human being is a social being. We live in a society and like to share our feelings, happiness and sorrows with our friends, relatives and others. We weren’t designed by our Father to do life alone…relationships are important to our well-being. No one knows that better than parents of children with special needs. We need each other. Community is essential to our mental, emotional, and spiritual health.
As you know Not Alone is a finalist for Favorite Special Needs Parenting Blog 2013. As much as we’d be honored to be selected as the “winner,” it’s more important to all of our contributing writers that we foster relationships and build community among parents and grandparents of children with special needs. For this reason we’d like to introduce you to some of the other wonderful parents who are also finalists for the Favorite Special Needs Parenting Blog 2013.
They are moms and dads of children with special needs who are sharing their journey’s with other parents thru their blogs. And we’d like to encourage you to welcome them as fellow-parents and take a few minutes to check out their blogs! We’re confident that you’re going to find some great additional resources and encouragement. Here they are:
Big Blueberry Eyes (by Michelle Helferich)
“I don’t consider my blog any more special than another blog. I have been consistently blogging for seven years now and feel I’ve remained true to what my blog was when I started it. I share about my family’s experience raising two kids, parenting my daughter who has Down syndrome, and being a military family. I share about the joys and triumphs and also the struggles and frustrations.”
http://mdbeau.blogspot.com/2007/08/hope-and-normalcy-part-2.html
Lessons From Matthew and Isaac (by Kevin Troupe)
“We are a family that wears our faith on our sleeves and tries to take every opportunity to show how good God is. It is our desire to come alongside families who may be struggling in thier journey of raising a special-needs child with inspiration and encouragement. It’s not what happens in our lives, but how we respond that determines the outcome.”
http://lessonsfrommatthew.com/2012/09/23/never-once-did-we-ever-walk-alone/
Mealtime Hostage (by Skye)
“Mealtime Hostage welcomes parents of children, both with and without special needs, and unites everybody in the search to overcome our challenges with eating. Selective eating children are not just ‘picky eaters’; selective eating children have a genuine inability to tolerate the sensory characteristics of food, and these kids often don’t just grow out of it. Unfortunately, a parent’s only resource for information about Selective Eating Disorder is another parent with a selective eater, and many have already discovered they are not alone through the Mealtime Hostage blog.”
http://mealtimehostage.wordpress.com/2012/09/21/you-cannot-create-a-picky-eater/
Community is, and always will be, more important than any contest. The apostle Paul reminded us that “all the members care for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.” (1Cor.12:25-26).
Let’s rejoice today with some of our fellow finalist parent-bloggers!
–Michael Woods