Called

I just came across an article in a magazine about raising a disabled child.  While I am thoroughly immersed in the special-needs world, I am drawn to articles in publications of a more typical nature.

Maybe I’m drawn because I am so aware of how the normal in this world often forgets about those deemed different.

The article caught my eye specifically as it highlighted a child with the same diagnosis as a close friend of mine’s son.  While rarer than Down syndrome or autism, it often “looks “similar. And yet still different.

Like disability itself.

The scope of disability is broad.  The word scope itself is contradictory to me, because it means “extent”, but my mind sees a telescope. Narrow, but enabling us to see an expansive view of things far away and out of our normal field of vision.

Disability is often like this. For those of us who live it daily, whether physical, intellectual or the many and varied combinations of both, our world can seem very small and closed as we operate with tunnel-vision.

My own experiences have often left me feeling alone and isolated.

Left wondering if anyone except me and those who live as I do really care about the seemingly small, yet realistically broad population affected by disability.

Social activities, clubs, groups and even churches are geared to the typically-developed.  While many strides have been made to accommodate the disabled, there remains the unspoken sense that things just don’t apply my special-needs child.

I parent him differently.  Time and again I have heard to treat him like my others and  have the same expectations, but the reality is – well, unrealistic.

How can I explain right and wrong to a child who often does not understand a word I say?

And if he does, how do I know he does? He can’t tell me. I can only assume and hope.

I never really know how much he knows. Only by extreme repetition and extensive practice is a task accomplished, but I really never know if he gets it, or if it is just rote habit.

The physical, mental and emotional exhaustion can be overwhelming.  For me, it’s the constant and active stage of pre-talking toddlerhood, encased in an 80-pound 12-year old. There is no indication or prediction of when or even if the next stage will come.

Throw in puberty changes and up goes the ante.

And that’s just the now.  The stress of planning for the future overwhelms me and while I lay it before the Lord, I feel irresponsible if I simply don’t worry.

Recently, my son accidentally got locked in our van. Fortunately, it was running with the AC on. But as I motioned repeatedly for him to unlock the door: “Come on, right here,” as I banged on the place the lock would so simply slide, he just looked at me and smiled.

I ordered a tag for his shoe with a safety alert blaring “I have autism and am non-verbal. “ Because running or bolting is a concern.

My typically-developed toddler once ran from me in a parking lot and after discipline never did again.

But again-it’s different.

I long to hear: “I love you Mommy”.  And add cute sayings for my list. My other children have many.

But one has only a name.

I know that words are not always necessary.

But the want in me aches to hear a spoken phrase.

And my self-centeredness makes me ashamed.

I read a comment recently from a mother who lost her baby who would have been severely disabled if he had lived. She said people told her it was for the best.

And she said she would see parents of disabled children and think how lucky they are.

I am blessed beyond measure to be his mother. I am privileged and unworthy.

My reality is the constant check of wanting more for my son and feeling guilty for doing so.

The constant element that permeates my life is only occasionally smattered in a magazine that talks of usual life. My constant different mixed with my everyday normal calling of wife and mother.

It’s where my callings meet –  of those I chose and those He chose.

A ministry given by the same grace by which He sustains me in my weakness.

He carries me through what He’s called me to do.

 “He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.”

I often hear, “I don’t know how you do it.”  I do not think any of us really know how we do it, except that we just do because we have to.  And I don’t know how those fighting harder battles do it.

But we do because we are called.  Chosen.

Each of us is chosen, by Him, for Him, to do His work and share His heart.

And whether the world ever fully accepts or includes or even mentions those He has chosen me to speak for, I will not stop.

Because He has called me.

Because He is faithful.

Because He will do it.

What is your calling?

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Touched

 

My girl has been on three mission’s trips. One of my favorite times is when she gets home, after she has slept off the jet lag and weary fog of travel has lifted enough to sit and have her “tell me all about it.”

The last was Honduras.  Something about this place tugs at the hearts of those who visit and beckons back. My brother goes often with his church and mine sends various groups to minister frequently. Missionary friends living there send updates and pictures of a place I have only heard of.

Maybe this place I have never been draws me so because I know of a hospital and an orphanage there.  Places that house the vulnerable and hurting. Places I haven’t been yet the kind of places where my heart lives.

My daughter and her team went to do unto Jesus as they visited the sick, the lonely, the estranged and the forgotten.

They prayed over children in hospitals beds where heat hung thick from no air-conditioning and for whom modern medical care had not yet made its way.

The next day the team went to an orphanage to love those who, for whatever reason, are left parentless.

I can’t help but wonder the reason the children who reside in an upstairs room were left alone.

The special-needs room.

A place for the most innocent, forsaken, and isolated.  I wonder who looked at their “imperfect” child and said no.

“Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble…”

My daughter went to up to one of the rooms, a little room within the larger special needs room where had gone yet.

In a crib, lying alone and shaking, a little boy came with a warning:  “He’s abusive.”

She didn’t care.

And as she touched the trembling boy who was never touched, he stiffened and bristled.

As the power of her gentle touch went through him, he felt the warmth of something so primal, yet rarely experienced except for diaper changes and basic care.

Then he relaxed.   As she told me this story, I pictured this fragile little boy breathing out and releasing the bondage of a life spent in a crib, unheld and lonesome – if only for a moment.

Lexi honduran boy

Photo credit: Joy Dodd

 

She went from child to child and touched the untouchable.

I think of Jesus touching the leper. Unafraid and only desiring to heal.

Compassion stronger than comfort.

In reaching out to a little boy with Down syndrome who was known to scratch and bite, she stood unwavering- maybe because God equipped her through her brother who often does the same.

And even as he spit in her face, she remained unmoved.  Unshaken.

Because loving the different and misunderstood is messy.

“Hurting people hurt people” doesn’t just those who hurl insults or hit their spouses. Those with deep, inexpressible hurt longing to speak only to utter grunts often lash out in frustration.

So they are put into isolation.

The young men on the team brought down the bigger children who normally couldn’t because the “Tia’s” or aunts couldn’t lift them to watch skits, listen to teaching and just be with the other children.

Included and no longer isolated.

Young men and women held children for hours offering the comfort, power and promise of touch. Still I wonder who was touched more.

“If only I may touch His garment, I shall be made well.”

Healing power through a simple act we take for granted. Yet it can be everything to those who exist without it. Being the vessel through which mercy flows and rests on one small child.

And though my own ministry within my home- the very one who prepared my daughter- keeps me here, I can touch His garment through those who go.

And as difficult as it is for me in the natural to allow my own children to travel thousands of miles away, it is my sacrifice as they become Jesus to the neglected and lost.

“For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.”

“And the King will reply to them, ‘Truly I tell you, in so far as you did it for one of the least [in the estimation of men] of these My brethren, you did it for Me.’ ”

The least in the estimation of men.  I can’t help think of my own son and those like him who society has deemed as “least”.

But to do for them is to do to Jesus Himself.

They are not least in His estimation.

The Message bible’s translation reads: “Then the King will say, ‘I’m telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me.’ “

The overlooked and ignored.

The upstairs room.

The children who couldn’t come down.

The ones rarely held.

Done… unto Him.

My deepest desire is to do unto the One Who did it all for me. Doing as Him and being transformed into His likeness- heart by heart of those we touch.

Whether a nation far away, the grocery store, the workplace, the doctor’s office, a friend’s kitchen, a child’s bedroom, the walls called home –

Jesus is waiting.