Children With Special Needs

[Tangnefedd]

Our adopted son (19) has Down's Syndrome. He came to us as a 13 month old bundle of baby from his foster parent's home. His own parents abandoned him in the hospital on the day he was born, as they could not cope with a child with a disability. (He would certainly have been aborted if they had known he had DS) Their loss is our gain, John-Paul is a wonderful lad; a blessing and a joy to us all. He is a wonderful uncle to our two grandsons and is their godfather. Our son will never be able to live independently, but has achieved quite a lot already. A national magazine published his autobiography when he was 14, and he has had a prayer and poem published in the UK and abroad. In 1999 John-Paul raised £405 for a national children's charity by challenging our local Member of Parliament to a Nintendo match. John-Paul beat him hands down. We are so proud of our boy.

Does anyone else on this forum have a child with special needs?

The attached photo shows our son pointing out the fish in the aquarium to nephew Elliot

 

[karla]

I don't have a child with special needs, but I just wanted to say what a beautiful post.

 

[Momzilla]

Ditto what Karla said. John-Paul sounds like a very special young man. I love that picture of him with his nephew!

 

[Tangnefedd]

John-Paul is extremely special. He is loved by everyone with whom he comes into contact. We are so fortunate that he does not have any behavioural problems as some folk with special needs do. It doesn't take much to please him, and bring a smile to his face. Having him say, "I love you, Mum", is worth more than all the money in the world to me.

 

[CeCe]

What a cutie!

I have an autistic daughter, so I understand some of the challenges in raising a special needs child. But it's well worth it. I'm quite blessed.

 

[HeatherJay]

I don't have a special needs child, but my Gram was a a teacher for 40 years...22 of those years she taught special ed. I grew up in her classroom with her kids...kids who stayed in the same class for their entire education because the school system didn't know what else to do with them back then. She LOVED what she did and she loved those kids with all her heart. And when she died, one of her former students who had gone on to seminary school despite his disability, preached at her funeral service.

It takes a special type of person to do what you and your husband did, Tang. I think it's beautiful, and the love that you gave is the love that you now see coming back from John-Paul. Thanks for sharing your beautiful story.

Love, Heather

 

[Tangnefedd]

Thank you Heather. However we don't think we have done anything wonderful, John-Paul has given us far more than we could ever give him.

I home schooled J-P as special education is very much a Cinderella speciality in the UK. Many of the kids have emotional and behavioural problems and we were keen that our lad would not copy inappropriate behaviour. He did go to a normal primary school (4-11 years) between the ages of 4/5 when we lived in England. On moving to Wales we decided to home school him, as in a Welsh primary school he would be expected to learn Welsh and that would have confused him.

 

[Blessed75]

What a wonderful post.........I don't have any special needs children (we're having my son tested - so hopefully he's just developmentally delayed - I'll keep you posted) but I do have a younger adopted sister who is special needs. It's amazing how much we can learn from them isn't it?

 

[Tangnefedd]

I do hope your son is fine Blessed.

It was much easier for us as we adopted John-Paul, having especially chosen to parent a child with DS. However, if he had been born to us, we would have gone through the grieving process that all parents do who have a child with a disability.