One of my roles here at COTP is fostering two incredibly awesome kiddos, each of whom has special needs. S has lived with me for the past year and a half and W joined our home a little over a year ago. Even though the past 1.5 years have been super challenging for them medically, I love having the opportunity to foster them and to walk alongside them in this season of their life. When you’re parenting kids with special needs you don’t always get to celebrate the “typical” milestones that other people do. Their first birthdays were both truly a celebration of the fact that they even made it to that milestone! People often ask me if they’ve started walking or talking yet, because those are the typical things you’d expect kids this age to be doing. It can feel defeating to repeatedly tell people all the things your kids can’t do. Instead I choose to focus on all the things these two little miracle babies can do.
S has a very complex past medical history, including two occasions when she had a cardiac arrest and had CPR to revive her. For a lot of reasons she has a very extreme oral aversion and gets most of her nutrition via a G-tube in her stomach. But she has made incredible progress over the past year and can now take in small amounts of food by mouth. This past week she ate a goldfish cracker. One whole goldfish cracker! It took her twenty minutes, but she did it! What an accomplishment that was for her! I was amazed and so incredibly proud.
W is almost fifteen-months-old and has very low tone, he’s still working to be able to hold his head up. He’s also severely vision impaired. Between his low tone and vision impairment it’s hard for him to play with most toys in the way that other kids do. This weekend he had his arm up in the air and I kissed his hand, which will always get him to smile. He then started to wave his hand around in the air, trying to find me, and smiling whenever he touched my face and I kissed his hand. Later in the day he had a toy piano beside him that flashes bright lights (which he can see) and plays music. His hand touched the keys once and started the music, then he did it again, and again. I could see the look on his face that he was figuring it out. The little wheels in his head were turning as he was discovering that he could make the music play. That was the first day he did something intentional with his arms and I was so proud of him. It was such a small thing, but for him it was huge!
Our days here look a little different. They’re filled with lots of medications, therapies, braces, and feeding tubes. I haven’t been able to celebrate a first word or first step yet. But I promise you that I was even prouder of them for the milestones that they reached this week. This week we are celebrating goldfish crackers and toy pianos. To think, I could have missed out on the joy of those accomplishments, if they were developing in a “typical” way. Instead my heart is bursting with joy and pride in the little things. Thank you Jesus that I get to be witness to these miracles first hand every day.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made -Psalm 139:14
Children of the Promise has given permission for the posting of the photos on this site. Photos taken of the children in the care of Children of the Promise are not to be posted publicly without explicit permission given by Children of the Promise.
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