developmental disability Archives

The Unique Struggles of a Special Sibling

“He gets mad at the smallest things and always causes a scene. I’m embarrassed to be seen with him.” ” I feel ignored and resent how much time he demands from my parents.” Click To Tweet “Why can’t I just have a NORMAL family like everyone else?!” “As much as I am embarrassed to be around my brother, I worry about if he is OK without me.” “It hurts when people are rude to him… but I feel guilty and ashamed because I am the rudest to him of all.” “Who will take care of her if something happens to …

Technology & your child’s brain development

Our kids will never know what it is to live in an unwired world. We’ve moved from the technology of the light bulb to the microwave, to the CD player, to the answering machine, and now to the mobile phone. Just doing homework research opens Pandora ’s Box of distractions like YouTube and Facebook, for starters. Today, moms find it hard to imagine what kind of tech will be commonplace to our kids when they grow up. Some parents feel overwhelmed by the waves of change and try to shut out the digital invasion. When adults check out, kids miss …

Mean Girls

The words on Facebook glared back at her. “You are so ugly! You are fat, annoying and I hate you!” Lindsay just sat there, staring at the screen, baffled. “What did I say? What did I do?” Maybe this has happened to one of your children, or in some way they’ve faced this same type of painful rejection. Maybe you have felt it yourself. I recently spotted a t-shirt at the mall that read “You’re no one until someone talks about you.” What a sad state of affairs. Growing up in a world where “Mean Girls” and “Gossip Girl” are movie …

Child with No Promise

The winner of Parenting from the Overflow by Teri Lynne Underwood are: Christine DeSanti and Katy Carris “Child with no promise,” was scribbled atop the orphanage file. Born in Eastern Europe. Unwanted. Abandoned. Downs Syndrome. Locked unnoticed behind a remote orphanage gate with no hope of release. Meanwhile, a content family of four was flourishing on the other side of the world. Their sole desire was to serve the Lord in anyway possible. Then, El Roi, our mighty God Who Sees, the Father to the fatherless, who places the lonely in families; His mighty plan of redemption began to unfold…. Vashti …

Special Siblings

Subscribe today and receive your FREE copy of… FACING OUR FEARS – 31 STORIES FROM M.O.M. “He gets mad at the smallest things. I’m embarrassed to be seen with him. I wish I had a normal brother like everyone else. I feel ignored and resent how much time he demands from my parents. As much as I can’t stand to be around my brother, I worry about if he is OK without me. It hurts when people are rude to him and I feel guilty because I am the rudest to him of all.” “Who will take care of …

Forbidden Grief

My children, husband and I were eager to share our lives with another brother or sister during my third pregnancy. Then without warning, our eagerness turned to devastation. Our twenty-week sonogram showed that my unborn son had Trisomy 18. We were told by all the professionals that the best thing we could do would be to terminate our pregnancy. That is when the pressure to abort began. The doctor visits and phone calls to my home were constantly persuading me to end my pregnancy. Well meaning family members also assured me to listen to the doctors. The pressure was …

Is it Autism?

“She does not like to be held or rocked at all. She won’t look at what I am pointing at, and never points at things herself. The softest touch sends her wailing, but being bitten by ants at the playground did not cause a stir. She still is not talking, but all my friends have had late talkers. She seems to look everywhere but in my eyes. So many things don’t seem right. Could this be autism?” Autism. Just the sound of the word makes the strongest of moms weak in the knees. So what is autism? According to the …

Help!

Do you have a nagging feeling that your child’s development is not quite right? Does your doctor see areas of concern? You may know you want help, but have no idea where to turn. Today my goal is to give you some information to help you get started! The very first place to begin is with Child Find, www.childfindidea.org. This website will help you obtain the contact information for your specific state. By law, each state is required to locate and evaluate every child between birth and age 21 who may need special education or early intervention services. This evaluation …

Welcome to Holland, by Emily Perl Kingsley

❀❀ Here is a wonderful essay by Emily Perl Kingsley. She has given us all a wonderful snap-shot of the experience of having a child born with a disability, and allows us to feel some of the emotions that go along with it. ❀❀ When you’re going to have a baby, it’s like planning a fabulous vacation trip-to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It is all very exciting. After months of eager anticipation, the day …

Uninvited Diagnosis

She was tiny, frail and unable to meet any of her developmental milestones. I knew her biological mom had used every drug imaginable during her pregnancy. Nevertheless, the neurologist’s diagnosis cut through me. Our adopted daughter would struggle through life with brain damage. Two years later, another uninvited diagnosis forced its way into my world. It came from a high-risk pregnancy doctor that rushed into the room after a longer than normal ultrasound. He dug the ultrasound wand into my swollen belly while still chewing his half eaten lunch, “Absent bladder…hernia…heart on the wrong side. Most likely Trisomy 18. The …