A Poem Dedicated to the Parents of Special Needs Children and Mother Teresa

“I know God will not give me anything I can’t handle. I just wish He didn’t trust me so much.” (Mother Teresa)

I remember meeting a lady about 3 years ago while watching our daughters swim

We shared a few niceties and then the question of how many children do you have came up

I noticed a small pause as she said three but my youngest has cerebral palsy

With out a breath or a thought I said, you must be loved and you must be special You were chosen

She looked at me with a beautiful smile and said that is the first time anyone has ever said that

The normal reaction is Oh I am sorry or not even knowing what to say.

I say there is a reason for every breath and

There is a reason for our eyes to see

There must then be a reason why bees go to the beehive to deposit honey
and not to the sewer to collect honey

For that very same reason there is a reason for children
that then become adults that have special needs

Some may believe that those children are here to learn something

I believe that we are here to learn something from each child
that comes to the world with special needs

These youngsters were in the womb of the universe for centuries before being born

They were in the womb of their mother while mother cradled hopes of running after a toddler

and watching their child fly a kite

The parents of children with special needs have special needs that need to be met by the rest of us

It might be a bowl of love at their doorstep every day

As mother takes teenage daughter to bathe

No longer an infant that is easy to handle

Now the weight of the daughter is more than mother can bear

But never the less, mother is mother

May it be in providing food that father helps or in cradling daughter after a nightmare

Both parents of the special needs children need to be treated with special care

I salute the state in which there is true equality for all

Where there are ramps going to mosques synagogues and churches

Candles may be lit as children dream of passing the torch of truth to us through their eyes

May I learn to hear the music between each and every wink of their eyes

Mothers and fathers I honor your courage and I am not sure if it is destiny or the laws of the universe that have made it so

With that I hold my breath for a moment just to feel what a day of a life other than mine might feel like

Again I will repeat the words of our saint Mother Theresa:

“I know God will not give me anything I can’t handle. I just wish He didn’t trust me so much.”

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