To all the Special Mothers

[Guest guest]

Someone sent this to me, I wanted to pass it on. Happy Mothers Day to the best

mothers God created.

To All The Special Mothers

Expectant mothers waiting for a newborn's arrival say they don't care what sex

the baby is. They just want their baby to have ten fingers and ten toes. Mothers

lie.

Every mother wants so much more. She wants a perfectly healthy baby with a round

head, rosebud lips, button nose, beautiful eyes and satin skin. She wants a baby

so gorgeous that people will pity the Gerber baby for being flat-out ugly.

She wants a baby that will roll over, sit up and take those first steps right on

schedule (according to the baby development chart on page 57, column two).

Every mother wants a baby that can see, hear, run, jump and fire neurons by the

billions. She wants a kid that can smack the ball out of the park and do toe

points that are the envy of the entire ballet class. Call it greed if you want,

but a mother wants what a mother wants.

Some mothers get babies with something more.

Maybe you're one who got a baby with a condition you couldn't pronounce, a spine

that didn't close, a missing chromosome or a palette that didn't close. The

doctor's words took your breath away. It was just like the time at recess in the

fourth grade when you didn't see the kick ball coming and it knocked the wind

right out of you.

Some mothers left the hospital with a healthy bundle, then, months, even years

later, you notice something not quite right,took him in for a routine visit, or

scheduled her for a well check, and crashed head first into a brick wall as you

bore the brunt of devastating news.

It didn't seem possible. Not my child.That didn't run in your family. Could this

really be happening in your lifetime?

I watch the Olympics for the sheer thrill of seeing finely sculpted bodies. It's

not a lust thing, it's a wondrous thing. They appear as specimens without flaw,

muscles, strength and coordination all working in perfect harmony. Then an

athlete walks over to a tote bag, rustles through the contents and pulls out an

inhaler.

There's no such thing as a perfect body. Everybody will bear something at some

time or another. Maybe the affliction will be apparent to curious eyes, or maybe

it will be unseen, quietly treated with trips to the doctor, therapy or surgery.

Mothers of children with disabilities live the limitations with them. ly, I

don't know how you do it. Sometimes you mothers scare me. How you lift that

kid in and out of the wheelchair twenty times a day. How you monitor tests,

track medications, and serve as the gatekeeper to a hundred specialists

yammering in your ear.

I wonder how you endure the clichés and the platitudes, the well-intentioned

souls explaining how God is at work when you've occasionally questioned if God

is on strike.

I even wonder how you endure schmaltzy columns like this one -- saluting you,

painting you as hero and saint, when you know you're ordinary. You snap, you

bark, you bite. You didn't volunteer for this, you didn't jump up and down in

the motherhood line yelling, " Choose me, God. Choose me! I've got what it takes

to be a mom to a special needs child. "

You're a woman who doesn't have time to step back and put things in perspective,

so let me do it for you.

From where I sit, you're way ahead of the pack. You've developed the strength of

a draft horse while holding onto the delicacy of a daffodil. You have a heart

that melts like chocolate in a glove box in July, counter-balanced against the

stubbornness of an Ozark mule.

You are the mother, advocate and protector of a child with a disability.

You're a neighbor, a friend, a woman I pass at church.

You're a wonder.

YOU ARE SPECIAL

--

Blessings

Jack, Cheryl and Kile Killman

www.myspace.com/cherylkillman

Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass; it's about learning how to dance

in the rain. "