How to Encourage a Special Needs Mom
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A dear friend of mine – Aprille from Beautiful in His Time, wrote this post coming from a view of a mom who doesn’t have a special needs child. It was a blessing to read from her heart of compassion on how she views our family and another special needs family and also her views of how YOU can help and encourage another special needs family when you might not know what to do.
Her words meant so much as she has followed our Autism journey from the beginning and has been a good friend, read my vents and my posts and seen my ups and my downs. She has been a huge support and I would love for others to see what they can do to help other families in need as well. I hope you can take the time to read this and share with others. It would be mean a lot.
How to Encourage a Special Needs Mom
It was the summer of 2010 and me and my two best online friends, Kathryn and Sara were expecting our little boys. We had met on Christian Military Wives and were all due within a 2 month time-span. We shared pregnancy photos and excitement at the birth of our precious boys. We had a lot in common – our boys, difficult birth experiences, and trouble breastfeeding.
But, in time, it became apparent that God had different paths for us to walk.
As our boys now approach their 3rd birthdays, we still have a lot in common. But now Kathryn and Sara spend their days taking their boys (who have both been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders) to special therapies so that they can learn to talk and eat–while I take my son to play dates, listen to him sing his ABCs, and watch him wolf down food like it’s nothing.
Over the last few years we have all struggled with this thing called motherhood, but Kathryn and Sara have also had to adjust to the life of a “special needs mom.”
As their friend, it’s been hard to know how to help. What to say, what not to say. How to encourage them. How to embrace the gift that God has given me and rejoice in my “healthy, normal” son while not undermining the struggles that they go through on a daily basis.
I know I haven’t been a perfect friend. And I’ve probably made a lot of mistakes. But they are gracious and our friendships have endured even the worst of my blunders.
This post is a compilation of advice that I’ve received from them, posts on their blogs, and some things I’ve learned the hard way. While some of it is autism/sensory processing disorder specific (because that is what I have been exposed to the most), I hope that this will encourage women who know special needs moms of all varieties.
Read the rest of this post HERE:
I loved your friends post! Thanks for sharing. Also it was #7 that touched home for me cause that is the one I find happens that most to me.