♫ Special Needs Kids

You know, all these opportunities to blog this have come and gone, and my lazy self hasn’t gotten around to it. It’s time, because there is actually a holiday for it today…that most people aren’t even aware of.

Today, April 2nd 2010, is World Autism Awareness Day.

The status going around Facebook is: “You don't know you are missing a big part of the world around you, until you know and love someone with Autism or Aspergers.”

Side note: I do love Facebook for raising awareness on things that people are passionate about, or that the world needs to take a step back and think about.

Growing up, I was raised in a home that didn’t allow us to view “mentally handicapped” people any different than anybody else. My mom has always played an active role in the community with special needs kids, tutoring in resource rooms, and having a bigger heart than most by loving on them and giving them more attention than most. In junior high school when a close friend encouraged me to get active in the Special Olympics program, my parents fully encouraged it. Making sure I had rides, money, and anything else I needed to participate.

That quote that’s going around Facebook today, couldn’t be more true. Until you’ve known somebody with Autism, Aspergers, or any other diagnosed mental or physical handicap, you’ve been blind. While a lot of the world sees them as retarded, or find them intrusive, intimidating, scary, or different…those that know them best know that they see the world in a way that we wish we could. They see the world with eyes that most children do…they never lose that magic that growing up puts on a “normal” person. They’re magical, they’re usually more intelligent than the average person, and though their communication skills might differ from yours entirely, being near them for a small amount of time can teach you more in mere minutes than you’ve learned over a lifetime.

"There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." <- - - that’s how they live EVERY DAY!

It is World Autism Awareness Day. But every day really should be. Get active in their community. Find ways to spend time with the Special Olympics in your community. And please, please teach your children how great they are, not how different they are. Expose them to them, don’t shelter them from them. Love on the parents that get to be challenged with a Special Needs child. That…is raising awareness. And it doesn’t cost you a dime.

Quotes to get you thinking:

"You've developed the strength of a draft horse while holding onto the delicacy of a daffodil ... you are the mother, advocate and protector of a child with a disability."

"Some people come into our lives, leave footprints on our hearts, and we are never the same."

"If you've told a child a thousand times and he still does not understand, then it is not the child who is the slow learner."

Yours Truly,
Nomz

**The picture at the top is actual silverware built for children with special needs. If you're interested, please see this link: Special Needs Cutlery