Everyone was so worried about his therapeutic needs, they put his medical needs on the back burner. Yes, our little boy has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. This is a life-threatening disease that effects a boy's muscles. Other DMD mothers are given this knowledge when their boys are babies or toddlers.... we were given this knowledge one week after bringing in this shattered soul in to our family's new life. Being told that your youngest family member has deep emotional therapeutic needs and a short life-expectancy is a very hard diagnosis to process as a foster mom. Foster parents are here to hold, nurture and heal children as they wait to be reunited with their parents. How do you fully emerge yourself emotional, physical and spiritual, knowing that you will loose a part of each aspect of your soul?
We have never had a case with therapeutic trauma therapist, a Muscular Dystrophy Clinic involvement, a team of ESE teachers and counselors, and multiple yes up to 3 different casemanagers on a team of others.
With a child in foster care, they are already looked at in that special way. Our kids are "those kids".You know the ones, the kids who are seen different from the "norm". You know those kids we label odd or off. Believe me, I've heard it all. It saddens my heart as their mother. How can my children who were homeless, victims, or brutally abused. When a child has all of the hurts and afflictions of coming into foster care, but have an added disability. Life is harder for our children in care. Sometimes the system looks at their therapeutic needs and seem to look over their physical needs. Sometimes the opposite. Either way, I'm here to say, life for our that special-needs/garden-variety child will ever be defined by them living in foster care. Life is defined by their living!
Just 13 months ago, we accepted the call to take in two beautiful children. One of the children was the victim of tortured abuse just after six short months after adoption. The six year old boy was the targeted child. He was a therapeutic little boy who was never touched with love. If this is a "forever" home. This is just one way how our children be come "special-needs". This broken little soul came into our family as an animistic creature who had never been accepted into any family. His only expression was to scream, hit and spit blood on us. We felt his broken spirit and knew he needed a miracle. Everyone was more worried about his therapeutic needs, yet set aside his medical needs.
Our little boy has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. This is a life-threatening disease that genetically effects boy's by weakening their muscles and paralyzing their bodies. Some DMD moms are given the knowledge as their babies grow.... we were given this knowledge just one week after bringing in this shattered soul in to our family's new life. Being told that your youngest family member has deep emotional therapeutic needy child is hard. Now we find out the news that he has a short life-expectancy. It was the hardest diagnosis I have ever processed as a mother. Foster parents are here to hold, nurture and heal the children we hold in our hearts and arms. How do you fully immerse yourself emotional, physical and spiritual, knowing that you will loose a part of each aspect of your soul? You do it all for the children and for the Lord we serve.
Please find a way to see beyond our children's labels and past to see our children for what God has intended. A life of love. A life of wholeness. A life of acceptance. Please don't give up. Please share with others! Advocate for them! Please inform and educate those who call them different or special. Our children with hidden or visual disabilities all need to feel equal and accepted. They are not your "garden-variety" children, they are His to be restored and be called uniquely designed.
In His Service,
Tammy
"Mom to the Broken - Hope to the Fatherless"
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