Natalie Maxwell is a writer and an advocate for special needs and adoptive families. She resides in North Dakota with her husband and their five children.
Natalie Maxwell is a writer and an advocate for special needs and adoptive families. She resides in North Dakota with her husband and their five children.
The inclusion of people with disabilities in our churches isn’t merely a pro-life issue. It is also a Biblical one.
My whole life I had always struggled with letting others in. Call it being an introvert, shy, or trust issues, but somewhere along the way I realized the less I really put my heart out there, the less I would get hurt. C.S. Lewis described it much more …
So often we think we need the answers before we can be equipped to love and serve, but I truly believe it all starts with a heart that’s willing to say, “I choose you.”
There is no getting around it, living through a pandemic is tough for everyone. But if you are the parent of a child with special needs, this time can be even more stressful and intimidating. I believe the key to helping our kids process and adjust to the changes they are facing is modeling for them, in an authentic way, our own feelings. Our kids need us to be strong for them, but they also need us to be real with them, to tell them it’s okay to be sad and scared.
Looking back, it’s funny to me how God had to convince us that a special needs adoption was the right path for our family – because I now consider every adoption to be “special needs.”
Before we adopted our son, those who only saw his disabilities told us that he would never give anything to us. They were so wrong. He has given us much more than we have given him.
When parenting a child with special needs, it’s easy to fix your eyes on the next surgery, therapy, diet or appointment. But it’s often difficult to simply embrace and enjoy your child in the moment.
Being pro-life is more than a bumper sticker or a picket sign. Being pro-life isn’t just about the words we say or the box we check on a ballot. Being pro-life is a way of life.
The world labels our oldest son as disabled, but most days I don’t see it that way. His disabilities do not define him. Still, I can’t deny the heartache I sometimes feel when I find myself comparing our eldest to his siblings.
I realized with newfound clarity that the miracle of adoption has zero to do with me and everything to do with the One who invented it.
