Re: another baby

[Guest guest]

I feel blessed by " normalcy " , too. Just wanted to chime in to the two of

your letters! I have four children, but have had five. My first had

severe chromosome abnormalities, and diphragmatic hernia, all of which

kept her in the ICU for 9 months, at which point she finally passed away.

Then came (I received criticism from others for knowingly getting

pregnant with him during my daughter's awful ICU ordeal. Our life was a

living nightmare then, living in the hospital, and I found out I was

pregnant just before my daughter died, so I no longer felt completely

desolate, but felt hope.)

is my autistic child, plus mentally retarded, now 8 years old. I

then proceeded to have three more totally normal, very bright, and

beautiful children, who keep me insanely busy, but do give a sense of

normalcy to my life. I would probably be more focused and able to help

without the others around, but on the other hand, I would have

been totally consumed by him, and autism, I think.

Ultimately I think God allows us to deal with whatever we're given....to

some, just a special needs child, to others, special and NT children.

I've almost felt " over-the-edge " handling it all sometimes, but I think

I'm making it through, and when they're all grown, will have a

wonderful support in his siblings. So that gives me joy.

Anyway, blessings to both of you, and courage!

Alison

On Thu, 26 Jul 2001 16:29:54 -0400 " Bergenholtz Family "

writes:

> I know this is rather late to respond to this, but I just noticed it.

> I have

> four children; 1 Landau-Kleffner, 1 PDD, 1 ADHD, 1 No problems (so

> far) and

> each have been a joy to raise. I have been given a hard time for

> having

> additional children after having special needs children...

And from Amy U:

So my unsolicited response if that I feel very blessed that

> we did

> > have another child (but don't know if I could have handled another

> special

> > one!).