Special Mothers

Today is Mother's Day. Every year, around this time, I receive a variety of emails which include writings which focus around mothers of children with special needs. I love them all, but one in particular always tugs at my heart. I've posted it below - read it and then read it again. You're traveling a road less traveled. It's a hard road. It's a road filled with lots of pot holes and unexpected twists and turns. Tears - lots of them - are shed along away. Yet there is laughter and love. There are days when the road feels like brand new pavement. Lessons are learned and lessons are taught. And as difficult as the road may be, it is a road I wake up too daily, thrilled that I was chosen to travel it.

Mothers of Disabled Children
Written and Published by Erma Bombeck on May 11, 1980

Most women become mothers by accident, some by choice, a few by social pressures and a couple by habit.

This year, nearly 100,000 women will become mothers of handicapped children. Did you ever wonder how these mothers of handicapped children are chosen?

Somehow I visualize God hovering over Earth selecting His instruments for propagation with great care and deliberation. As He observes, He instructs His angels to make notes in a giant ledger.

"Armstrong, Beth: son: patron saint...give her Gerard. He's used to profanity."

Finally he psses a name to an angel and smiles. "Give her a blind child."

The angel is curious. "Why this one, God? She's so happy."

"Exactly." says God. "Could I give a child with a handicap to a mother who does not know laughter? That would be cruel."

"But has she patience?" asks the angel.

"I don't want her to have too much patience, or she will drown in a sea of self-pity and despair. Once the shock and resentment wear off, she'll handle it."

"But Lord, I don't think she even believes in you."

God smiles. "No matter. I can fix that. This one is perfect. She has just enough selfishness."

The angel gasps. "Selfishness? Is that a virtue?"

God nods. "If she can't separate herself from the child occasionally, she'll never survive. Yes, here is a woman whom I will bless with the child less than perfect. She doesn't realize it yet, but she is to be envied.

She will never take for granted a spoken word. She will never consider a step ordinary. When her child says 'Momma' for the first time, she will be present at a miracle and know it! When she describes a tree or a sunset to her blind child, she will see it as few people ever see my creations.

"I will permit her to see clearly the things I see - ignorance, cruelty, prejudice - and allow her to rise above them. She will never be alone. I will be at her side every minute of every day of her life, because she is doing my work as surely as she is here by my side."

"And what about her patron saint?" asks the angel, pen poised in midair.

God smiles. "A mirror will suffice."