Autism, Caregiving, Challenges, Hope, Special Needs Parenting, Spiritual Growth
Sunita Theiss
Discovering What God Already Knew About Me, ...

I first suspected I had ADHD as a teenager, but finding the right professional to take me seriously was much harder than I expected. Previous attempts only ended in frustration and tears.

Discovering What God Already Knew About Me, Through My Children’s Diagnosis
Caregiving, Challenges, Living Life Daily
Jolene Philo
Enjoying the Holidays with a Food Allergy

Enjoying the holidays with a food allergy sounds like an oxymoron doesn’t it? After all, eating together is an integral component of the holiday season. I looked forward to making our traditional holiday foods until I was diagnosed with a dairy allergy in 2012. What was to enjoy about the holidays when the foods associated with it were off limits to me?

Enjoying the Holidays with a Food Allergy
Caregiving, Challenges, Grief, Hope, Special Needs Parenting
John Fela (Felageller)
A New Home

It was a short, ten-minute drive from the hotel to the residential facility. I maintained composure while I navigated the busy public roads, and then residential streets. I had a whole range of emotions racing through my body, mind and spirit as we pulled into the campus. This was not just a pleasure drive or a routine errand, this was a significant milestone in the life of my son and our family.

A New Home
Autism, Caregiving, Challenges, Special Needs Parenting
Mark Arnold
Halloween & Special Needs: How to Make it ...

While Halloween is a fun time of year for many children, it can be a really difficult time for some, including many children with additional/special needs. For them it can be a confusing, anxiety-inducing, or even utterly terrifying time. But it doesn’t have to be like that. If we stop for a moment to think about the things they might find hard and how to put things in place to help them, children with special needs can safely join in the fun, too. So what are some of the things about Halloween that children with additional needs can find hard?

Halloween & Special Needs: How to Make it Fun for Every Child
Caregiving, Hope, Living Life Daily, Marriage, Special Needs Parenting
Joe and Cindi Ferrini
It’s Not Just “Us” 

“While we’ve had many years of travel speaking together on marriage, discipleship, and other topics, we are seldom alone and ‘just us’”Joe & Cindi Ferrini write on the struggle of never truly being along as special needs parents, and the importance of making time “just for us.”

It’s Not Just “Us” 

suffering

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The Mission Field Next Door: Meeting The Desperate Needs of Special Needs Families

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The Mission Field Next Door: Meeting The Desperate Needs of Special Needs Families

I once served as a volunteer missionary for nearly 2 years and as a missionary, I was willing to do whatever was asked of me. I often sit in church and listen to the different mission programs, especially short work trips and wonder why? Why do we raise thousands of dollars to send courageous, self-sacrificing individuals to visit far off lands in the name of Jesus when there are so many we neglect in our own communities? We need the Church to be the hands and feet of that powerful calling we claim as Christianity. Outside of the church walls. It might be time to get our hands dirty.

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When You Find Yourself Asking God “Why?”

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When You Find Yourself Asking God “Why?”

After months of pleading these questions and God not giving me an answer, I experienced a crisis of faith that scared me. Was God a good God? Was God even real? If He was, surely He'd be answering my questions and my prayers, right? One day while journaling my struggles, sorrows, complaints and whys, I felt strongly that God was telling me I was asking the wrong question.

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When The Doctor Can't Fix Your Child

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When The Doctor Can't Fix Your Child

No one can prepare you for what it’s like to be a witness of the continued struggle in your child, just to survive. There’s no chapter on that in the pregnancy books. There’s no guidebook for how to be a parent of the suffering. Or is there?

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How Caregiving Grows Friendship and Builds Trust

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How Caregiving Grows Friendship and Builds Trust

Being a special needs parent and serving in disability ministry has changed how I approach relationships. For example, disability teaches me benefits of slowing down, and trusting deeply, including the treasure of trusting God. But I’m also reminded me that serving in disability ministry is much like serving in a mission field. We learn how relationships were meant to be lived.

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God, Why Did You Fail Me?

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God, Why Did You Fail Me?

I had grand dreams of the ministry work we would do. The reality of life was a far cry from that, which led to a crisis of faith. In the process of questioning and wrestling with God, I got to know Him better—for Himself, as He truly is, not as I had been taught, but Him.