35 Secrets of Being a Special Needs Parent

From the website “The Mighty.” These “secrets” are at most a few sentences long; most of them are just one sentence. But they contain wisdom gained from experience.

To access:

https://themighty.com/2015/04/special-needs-parenting-secrets/

Also:

Reaching for Paschal Joy MAY 2, 2016 / BETH

Reaching for Paschal Joy

from the website “In Case of Fire, Use Stairs: Welcome to your

Near-Beth-Experience,” by Beth Thielman 

This post relates Beth’s experience of Pascha 2016, which had it’s ups and downs and ups, in that order. The downer was an anxiety attack, but by the end of the celebration she found peace of mind and gratitude for the loved ones who supported her.

She relates her experience on this Pascha to the Apostle Thomas’ experience after Christ’s resurrection. She writes,

No one is without struggle and weakness, especially not the Saints of the Church. The thing I take from Thomas is not that he doubts, but that he presses on. And of course, the true beauty of the story is that he got to reach out and touch Love Incarnate in the hour of his greatest need.  . . . . 

The Apostle Thomas reminds me that Paschal joy lasts a LOT longer than one night. And no matter what, Christ can meet me where I am: His Love is always within my reach.

Christ is risen!

 

“

The Church and Disability

Below is the post by this title, written by Ellen Stumbo, the wife of a professional counselor who had been a Protestant pastor for 13 years. She and her husband have a daughter with down syndrome. Her blog is about faith, disabilities, parenting, and adoption. This article as well as the others in this blog is informative and comes from direct experience. To access:

The Church and Disability

She has received comments from a woman in her congregation concerning her daughter, suggesting that the daughter should be healed; “it is a reminder that we do not have enough faith.” and from a friend who “confessed she thought I deserved it. She said that I must have done something wrong for God to give me a child with a disability.” The church has a handicapped parking space sign that reads, “soon to be healed.” Ellen expresses dismay over such words, and the attitudes that lay behind them.

Later on in this post she shares that 80% of families with members who have a disability do not regularly attend church. Ellen lists their reasons in this post (it’s a long list).

She writes,

Did you know that people with disabilities are the largest minority in the world? Yes, the largest minority!

Disability ministry is a huge need!!!

Let’s wake up! We are The Church!

Other posts in her blog she refers to in this post which expand her thoughts on these matters:

Are special needs families isolated? by Erin Loraine

Life with disability

Where Church and Disability Meet – Resources

Ellen started an organization, Disability Matters: Encouraging Every Church to Embrace Disability. Here is the organization’s website:

Disability Matters: Encouraging every Church to Embrace Disability

Ellen also has a You Tube page: You Tube: Ellen Stumbo

Here’s Ellen on another You Tube page:

From her own page:

 

The Illegality of Medical Rationing on the Basis of Disability

“Child Euthanasia in Nazi Germany” from Heilanstalt Schönbrunn bei Dachau. – SS-Foto, 16.02.1934

From the Website “Not Dead Yet,” which is an anti-euthanasia (mercy killing, proponents call it) focusing on the threat from those who feel the people with disability have such a poor quality of life that they would be better off dead, and from insurance companies, hospitals, and other decision-making medical professionals who  think the cost of care is too much for those who “don’t produce.” 

What they are proposing is illegal!

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To access:

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DREDF Brief: The Illegality of Medical Rationing on the Basis of Disability

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