Parents

When I was born, I only slept two hours every 12 hours. I didn’t cry, I screamed. My parents took me to specialist after specialist. We ended up at Kennedy Krieger Institute at Johns Hopkins. The head of pediatric psychiatry advised my parents to institutionalize me because I would never be educated. My mom chose not to.  

This was the beginning of my mom giving up a lot to fight for me. Central Maryland in the 1970s didn’t have early intervention programs or special education. My mom fought for my education. She pushed forward against many that didn’t want in their schools or classes. She created the Carroll County Learning Disability group to help other parents. 

I was the forerunner for inclusive education for students with learning disabilities in Carroll County Public schools. The beginning of my education started at a special-needs school and then I was placed in an elementary school with self-contained classrooms. All along my mom attended IEP meetings and fighting with teachers and principals for me to be properly educated.  She gave up a lot so that I would receive a high school diploma. 

My mom was heavily involved with being a volunteer at the school that I was enrolled in. She did bulletin boards, helped teachers with different special days, and just made sure she was around to see that I was being properly educated. At first my mom did not work, because she was making sure that I had the proper tutors and enrichment after school. I went to summer school.  She found tutors to help me with the subjects that I was not good at. 

She spent endless hours helping me with math facts, reading, and writing. She spent many hours looking over IEP reports and different educational testing. She spent endless hours in waiting rooms, taking me to different specialists throughout the state. Once a month I would go to John Hopkins for the day to see a pediatrician, psychiatrist, psychologist, occupational therapist, and speech therapist.

Parents of children with disabilities give up a lot for their children especially the mothers. They lose relationships with others, and manage stresses on their marriage and stresses on their relationship with their other children. These parents need prayer, but they also need a church community to help come around them. This can be as simple as making a meal for these family. This can be starting an access ministry at your local church. Having a respite night so these parents can go out together and have some rest. Parents are the greatest advocate for their children no matter if they have a developmental disorder, a mental health issue, or a physical chronic condition. They need the support of their local church, and they need to be included in the local church body.

How is this all relatable to Ukraine? The current situation in Ukraine is a lot like the situations my parents had in the 1970s: there was very little access to early intervention programs, special-needs education, and community to help support families with children with disabilities. Many of the parents of the wings of faith ministry have faced doctors telling them to institutionalize their children. Institutionalization in Ukraine is a death sentence to children with any type of disability but especially autism. These children are warehoused and forgotten about. I doubt this sounds unimaginable, but it’s the reality. God has given me the story that many would consider horrible, but he is using it for his glory in Ukraine. These parents relate to me, and God shows them that there is hope in their child’s disability.

How can you help?
1. Pray for these parents in Ukraine. Pray for the Early Intervention Program in Rivne, Ukraine. (The first in Ukraine.)
2. Go to serve on SALT Serve Trips or pastors join a SALT Vision Trips.
3. Send me or others to work in Ukraine to build His kingdom.