Dr. E, thanks for the kind words. I very much appreciate them.
“Only someone who has parented a child with Down’s Syndrome knows the extraordinary amount of time and effort and frustration and exhaustion and elation that comes with such a God-given task.”
When our son was born, I asked God why we had been cursed. I thought, at 32, that I would never be able to retire, that life as “I” had planned it was all over. And indeed life as I had planned it was all over. My career took a different turn, the lives of my wife, myself and our oldest son headed off in a direction we never could have imagined...no acceptance of judicial appointments, no big trial practice, no acceptance of corporate board positions in exchange for dealing with hospitals and medical specialists and special ed systems and the state legislature for 25 years and spending the past 21 years on the board of the largest provider of homes and work for people with mental retardation and autism and schooling for children with autism in the state. Our boy’s birth was and is the greatest blessing we as a family and indeed our parish community have ever received. Everything has been different and everything has turned out blessed, if not easy.
My Christian Orthodoxy teaches me that we need to die to the self in order to become Christ-like and advance in theosis. Some of us, like me, fail miserably at that but God does give us opportunities to straighten out...or a good slug with a metaphorical 2X4. Our son was that 2X4 and I thank God for him every day.
Amen.
That's because it's much easier to thank God when things are going well, and shake our hands at God when they are not. Job comes to mind.
They’re wonderful children and you ARE blessed.