Chicken Soup for the Soul: Children with Special Needs by Jack Canfield Read Free Book Online Page B

than I could bear.
    Then a phone call came to the hospital. It was my friend Kris. With her usual enthusiasm, she greeted me with, “I heard you have a beautiful baby boy!” My mind raced. Surely, no one had told her about my baby because they didn’t want to hurt her. They knew that her daughter Kari was profoundly mentally and physically disabled and was not expected to live very long.
    I never quite understood Kris. She treated Kari as you would any baby. I never once saw that look of disappointment that I thought the mother of a child with a severe disability should have. Secretly, I wondered if she really understood how bad off Kari was.
    I didn’t know the words to say, but I knew I had to tell her the truth. Through my tears, I replied, “I do, Kris, but he’s handicapped.”
    Immediately, and with excitement in her voice, she said, “I know. Isn’t that wonderful?”
    I was so taken aback. When she said that, it was almost as if she were sharing a delightful secret that only she and I knew. How could she, of all people, be happy for me? Something in her voice gave me hope.
    Yet, even with that hope, I struggled. I have never grieved so much for anything or anyone as I did for my David.
    Are there still unkind children left in this world? Perhaps, but my experience has been that most kids are good and kind.
    Sue taught me forgiveness. It is because of her that I can forgive myself for how I once treated her, as well as for my uninformed thoughts regarding my son.
    Kris taught me acceptance. She taught me to be able to see what others could not—the worth of a child.
    I remembered how Kris had told me that when Kari was born, the doctors had told her to take her baby home and just love her because she would not live through the weekend. Kris told me that when she got home, she made a list of the things she wanted to do before her baby died. She wanted to kiss her and sing to her. She wanted to rub baby lotion on her and put a pink bow in her hair. She wanted to cut a locket of her hair and tell her how much she loved her. Kris told me she considered each day after completing the items on that list a Bonus Day. God gave Kris 3,779 bonus days.
    But it has been my son, David, who has become my finest teacher. He has taught me that the only sadness I should feel at the birth of a child with a disability is for those who have not learned how to love him yet.
    Gina Johnson
     
    Gina Johnson is the proud mother of seven beautiful children, including a son, David, who has Down syndrome. She is the founder of the nonprofit Sharing Down Syndrome Arizona, ( www.sharingds.org ), and an outspoken disability advocate who loves her faith, her family, and all children, but especially those who have Down syndrome. Reach her at [email protected].
     

Out of the Mouths of Babes
     
    One of my six-year-old daughter’s favorite kids in school is a nine-year-old boy named Sammy. According to Nikki, Sammy is in a wheelchair and has a feeding tube.
    One day, during one of our after-school chats, I asked, “Nikki, can Sammy talk?”
    “Oh, yes,” she assured me. “He can talk.”
    “Are you sure?” I asked her. “I thought the kids in his class couldn’t talk.”
    “Yes, he can,” insisted Nikki, her voice growing louder. “Sammy talked to me today.”
    “What did he say?” I asked her.
    Nikki responded, “When I said ‘hi’ to him, he smiled at me.”
    Cheryl Kremer
     
    Cheryl Kremer lives with her husband, Jack, and children, Nikki (now fifteen) and Cobi (twelve), in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She has been published in several Chicken Soup books and is thrilled every time she sees her work in print. She spends her time working in preschool and watching her kids play soccer, basketball, and field hockey. She can be reached at [email protected].
     

The Vacation
     
S ometimes adversity impels a person to greater heights, and sometimes it provides the opportunity for that person to be a blessing in the lives of