Are you scrounging for thankfulness this holiday season? Holidays can be a challenge for those walking through hard days. Perhaps you feel like you've been handed the short-end of the stick; your child is struggling, you’re exhausted and it seems like everybody else has life with a bit more gravy. It’s easy to focus on our circumstances, take stock of what we have and where we are and end up feeling completely void of thankfulness. Is there a cure for this?
I first suspected I had ADHD as a teenager, but finding the right professional to take me seriously was much harder than I expected. Previous attempts only ended in frustration and tears.
Enjoying the holidays with a food allergy sounds like an oxymoron doesn’t it? After all, eating together is an integral component of the holiday season. I looked forward to making our traditional holiday foods until I was diagnosed with a dairy allergy in 2012. What was to enjoy about the holidays when the foods associated with it were off limits to me?
It was a short, ten-minute drive from the hotel to the residential facility. I maintained composure while I navigated the busy public roads, and then residential streets. I had a whole range of emotions racing through my body, mind and spirit as we pulled into the campus. This was not just a pleasure drive or a routine errand, this was a significant milestone in the life of my son and our family.
While Halloween is a fun time of year for many children, it can be a really difficult time for some, including many children with additional/special needs. For them it can be a confusing, anxiety-inducing, or even utterly terrifying time. But it doesn’t have to be like that. If we stop for a moment to think about the things they might find hard and how to put things in place to help them, children with special needs can safely join in the fun, too. So what are some of the things about Halloween that children with additional needs can find hard?
When we care for our child(ren) with special needs, it’s self-sacrificing. It is more than a “job” as some might say, it is an undertaking (as one of my friends shared so succinctly with me). Yet some of us have a different level and depth of care. Although our son needs 24/7 attention and care, he can do a good number of things on his own. Cindi Ferrini shares the difference between Self-less and Selfless.
As parents or caregivers of someone with special needs we often have hard seasons; times where “troubles assail us” as the hymn writer once wrote. Perhaps you have a ‘Plan B’ in your back pocket for unexpected situations or you have a mental list of who to call or where to get help when needed, but there are times when we don’t have an inkling of an idea of what to do next or how we can continue in the hard times. Our human nature wants to be in control and fix the situation and we find it hard to trust that “God’s got this” when the situation seems to have no end.
“My daughter has changed so much in this area during her 18 years of life. It’s progress, and it’s a small thing that I appreciate as her mother now. During those years when it didn’t go well, they were hard. Haircuts haven’t been the only area of growth. I recall being completely anxious every time I left the house with my daughter alone as she would run off and not respond to my pleas to stop. The running off and the anxiousness eventually stopped, but life was hard until then.” Evana Sandusky
