BEAUTIFUL SYMBOL OF INNOCENCE

     We were on our way to visit an institution in 1954 with our three daughters:  Mary, twelve, Joan, nine, and Ruth, eighteen months old.  Because of little Ruth, handicapped since birth, we were making this sad and silent trip.  We had been advised to place her in a special home.  "It will be less of a burden,"  "Ruth will be better off with children like herself,"  "Your other children will have a home free of the care of a disabled person."
  To break the silence, I flipped on the car radio and heard the voice of a former classmate.  I remembered him as a boy without legs.  He was now president of an organization employing persons who are disabled.
He told of his childhood and of a conversation with his mother.  "When it was time for another handicapped child to be born," his mother explained, "the Lord and his counselors held a meeting to decide where he should be sent...where there would be a family to love him.  Well, our family was chosen."
  At this, my wife Edna leaned over and turned off the radio,  her eyes shining with un-shed tears.  "Let's go home," she said.  
  I touched Ruth's tiny face.  She looked like a beautiful symbol of innocence.  I knew at that moment Ruth was given to us for a purpose.  How miraculous it was that the voice of a friend, with whom I'd had no contact for twenty years, should that day speak to me.  Mere coincidence?  Or was it God's unseen hand helping us hold on to a little girl who would enrich our lives immeasurably in the years that followed?
     That night, Edna awoke at three o'clock in the morning with thoughts that demanded to be written.  A pad was on the night table, and in the morning we pieced her notes together into the poem:
            &nb sp;                         &nb sp;     
HEAVEN'S VERY SPECIAL CHILD
A meeting was held quite far from Earth;
 "It's time again for another birth."
Said the angels to the Lord above,
"This special child will need much love.
 Her progress may seem very slow.
Accomplishments she may not show,
And she'll require extra care
From the folks she meets way down there.
She may not run or laugh or play,
Her thoughts may seem quite far away.
In many ways she won't adapt,
And she'll be known as handicapped.
So let's be careful where she's sent
We want her life to be content.
Please, Lord, find the parents who
Will do a special job for you.
They will not realize right away
The leading role they're asked to play,
But with this child sent from above
Come stronger faith and richer love.
And soon they'll know the privilege given
In caring for this gift from heaven.
Their precious charge, so meek and mild,
Is "HEAVEN'S VERY SPECIAL CHILD."
            &nb sp;  .....John and Edna Massimilla
            &nb sp;                         &nb sp;   
JUST LIKE ME

I went to my dad, and I said to him,
There's a new kid who's come to my school.
He's different from me and he isn't too cool.
No, he's nothing at all like me, like me,
No, he's nothing at all like me.

He runs in a funnyish jerkyish way.
And he never comes first in a race.
Sometimes he forgets which way is first base,
And he's nothing at all like me, like me.
No, he's nothing at all like me.

He studies all day in a separate class,
And they say that it's called Special Ed.
And sometimes I don't understand what he's said,
And he's nothing at all like me, like me,
No, he's nothing at all like me.

His face looks kind of different from mine,
And his talking is sometimes slow.
And it makes me feel funny and there's one    
thing I know,
He is not at all like me, like me,
No, he's nothing at all like me!

And my father said, "Son, I want you to think
When you meet someone different and new
That he may seem a little bit strange, it's true,
But he's not very different from you, from you,
No, he's not very different from you."

Well I guess, I admitted, I've looked at his face;
When he's left out of games, he feels bad.
And when other kids tease him, I can he's so sad

I guess that's not so different from me, from me,
No, that's not very different from me.            &nb sp;       
And when we're in Music , he sure loves to sing.           
And he sings just like me, right out loud.            &nb sp;                    

When he gets his report card, I can tell he feels proud.

And that's not very different from me, from me,
No, that's not very different from me.

And I know in the lunchroom he has lots of fun;
He loves hot dogs and ice cream and fries.
And he hates to eat spinach and that's not a surprise,
Cause that's not very different from me, from me,
No, that's not very different from me.

And he's always so friendly, he always says hi,
And he waves and he calls out my name.
And he'd like to be friends and get into a game,
Which is not very different from me, from me,
No, I guess that's not different from me.

And his folks really love him, I saw them at school,
I remember on Open School Night --
They were smiling and proud and they hugged him real tight,
And that's not very different from me, from me,
No, that's not very different from me.

So I said to my dad, "Hey, you know that new kid?"
Well, I've really been thinking a lot.
Some things are different...and some things are not
But mostly he's really like me, like me,  
Yes, my new friend's...a lot....like me.
            &nb sp;        ...Emily  Perl Kingsley 
            &nb sp;        
            &nb sp;                         &nb sp;     
       MOTHER'S OF DISABLED CHILDREN
     Most women become mothers by accident, some by choice, a few by social pressures and a couple by habit.
     This year, nearly one hundred thousand women will become mothers of handicapped children.  Did you ever wonder how these mothers of handicapped children are chosen?
     Somehow 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, Matthew.  Forest, Marjorie: daughter, patron saint, Cecelia.
     "Rutledge, Carrie:  twins, patron saint....give her Gerard.  He's used profanity."
     Finally he passes 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 wears off, she'll handle it."
     "But Lord, I don't think she even believes in you."
     God smiles,  "No matter, I can fix that.  The 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 a 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 -- ignorrance, 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."

            &nb sp;                         &nb sp;                     ...Erma Bombeck
            &nb sp;                         &nb sp; 

  "The Lord is exalted over all the nations, his glory above 
    the heavens.
    Who is like the Lord our God, the One who sits enthroned
    on high,
    who stoops down to look on the heavens and the earth?
    He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from
    the ash heap;
    he seats them with princes, with the princes of    

    their people
    He settles the barren woman in her home as a happy 
    mother of children.
    Praise the Lord!
            &nb sp;                         &nb sp;               .......Psalm 113:4-9
            &nb sp;                         &nb sp;                         &nb sp;
     God Bless All the Mothers who have been chosen to raise one of "HEAVEN'S VERY SPECIAL CHILDREN". 
      My mother was one of those special women who God saw fit to bless with a Child that had special needs.  When I was 10 years of age....she gave birth to my brother...Gordon Bennett Moon....who was born with "Down Syndrome".  I had the special privilege of loving and caring for my brother.  Never have I witnessed such love as he has.   Yes, he is still alive today...God has granted him long life....for he is now 57 years of age and still full of love for everyone he meets.  The doctor's told my mother he would not live past 13....well as you can see....he has passed his years of life expectancy and still being God's Special Angel....here on earth.   And one thing I know he has a special relationship with God.  He speaks all the time of going home to see Jesus and his sweet "Mama".  God may see fit to call him home soon....but I know one thing....I will live every day....thanking my God that I have Gordon as my very special brother...whom I love very dearly and who has enriched my life so very much and has shown me what loving God really means.....

God Bless All.......