Monday, March 5, 2012

Unstoppable spirit


I found this story and couldn't wait to share it. I used to work with severely handicapped kids. That was my job that I truly loved. After working there for a short time, you know longer looked at them as handicapped, but incredibly special spirits inside those little imperfect bodies. As I read this story, I thought about some of our kids (at work ) who could never speak. My niece who I love so much has been unable to speak her whole life, she is now in her 30s and yet, without saying a word...she has taught us all so very much. Our lives have been blessed and richer because of Farah. How I wish she could have spoken to us, like this young woman in the story. I know she too had a voice which we have never heard. Thank goodness God hears us no matter what. He knows our thoughts and our hearts. When you spend some time with Farah and these other wonderful kids that I have, you feel like you have just spent the day with an Angel.
So I hope you read this story and not only count your blessings, but maybe change your outlook on others that are different than we are.
Good night dear friends.

 
 Photo from here

Teen Locked in Autistic Body Finds Inner Voice
2009-08-06, ABC News 20/20
Something extraordinary happened to Carly Fleischmann, a severely autistic 14-year-old who, unable to speak, was once written off as mentally deficient. "It is hard to be autistic because no one understands me. People look at me and assume I am dumb because I can't speak." There are experts and skeptics who believe that nonverbal people like Carly are incapable of thinking or writing. Her words may never have been found if not for the relentless determination of her family, who never gave up on her. Carly's story is how one child found her way out of the dense forest that is autism, and how her experience may unlock the mysteries of this baffling disorder. In the beginning, Carly's delays prevented her from walking and sitting up, but as she grew, it became painfully clear that Carly couldn't speak. But then one day, three years ago, when Carly was 11, she was working with two of her therapists when she started to feel sick. Unable to communicate what she needed, she ran to a computer and began to type for the first time. First she typed the word "H-U-R-T" and then "H-E-L-P" and then she threw up. Her therapists were shocked: They had never specifically taught her those words, and they wondered where she had learned them. Carly's typing showed them that there was a lot more going on inside her head than they had thought. For the first time she was able to communicate independently. After nine years of intensive therapy, and not much to show for it, Carly was finally emerging out of her silent, secret world.
 I found the story here:http://www.wanttoknow.info/inspirationalnewsstories

"Disability is a matter of perception. If you can do just one thing well, you're needed by someone."  
~Martina Navratilova

"The more I read and the more I talked to other parents of children with disabilities and normal children, the more I found that feelings and emotions about children are very much the same in all families. The accident of illness or disability serves only to intensify feelings and emotions, not to change them."   ~Judith Weatherly

2 comments:

Jean(ie) said...

As a sister to a special needs brother (down syndrome), I fully understand that all is not what it appears.

I can remember one time when A, my older brother wanted to go outside to play. Mom said, no and locked the back door. Later, he was outside. He couldn't figure out how to unlock the lock, but he figured out how to cut the screen with scissors!

Never, ever assume anything!

Lynn said...

Yes, that is soooooooo true! Thanks for sharing that with me.
Lynn