Skip to main content

The Girl Who Sits On My Shoulder

She needs you.
There is no light in her world.
She sits and waits and poses for the camera as someone takes one more picture to add to her file. They are all hoping someone will notice her and be moved to bring her into their family.

She needs to be a daughter, and not an orphan.
Her face needs to be kissed by a mother.
A daddy needs to protect her from all harm.
A momma needs to fall in love with a picture and a daddy needs to stand for her and be courageous enough to say yes.

She weighs on my heart all day long, every day.
As it turns out, I am human. I am just like you every day.
I am tired. I am worn out. I am scared that I get this parenting thing more wrong than the times I get it right.
Today my heart cannot rise to do this again. And I feel that weight. I carry it all day long.

And yet she is the girl who sits on my shoulder.
Day in and day out I pray for her.
I ask God to whisper her name into the heart of a mother and a father somewhere.
And she finds me in my dreams. .

Justice does not leave her an orphan.
Love does not pass by her picture.
The God who asks us to be the one who stops, who cares, who loves, is showing her to us today.

She is more than our fears.
She is more than her fears.
She is more than her disabilities.
She is Calina.
And Calina needs a yes today.

Please say yes.






Comments

  1. GayleFebruary 24, 2017 at 6:39 PM

    While there are many children and adults that are non verbal, only a small percentage of these are unable to use augmentative communication. Some Medicaid programs cover augmentative devices. Some insurance will pay some of the cost. If you have an iPad, there are many apps for communication. The better ones are not cheap but worth it. Some of the more common ones are TouchChat HD (your speech therapist can get access to a free download of the smaller version so you can try it with her) or Proloquo to Go (good for those that need access to both English and Spanish), PODD works well for children or adults with multiple challenges (check out We Speak PODD on Facebook) In Arizona, you contact you Dept of Developmental Disabilities Service Coordinator to begin the evaluation process. Hope this helps some of you to locate some resources, it is amazing what most of the children/adults can do with access to an augmentative communication device! Age 2 to 102, no one is the wrong age for help with communication.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Loving A Child Who Cannot Speak

I have a daughter and she is nonverbal. It is one of the most difficult portions of my life. When the tears fall it becomes a guessing game. When we miss the mark of the needs the tears become screams. The frustration that mounts for everyone is intense. That screaming can last for what feels like an eternity. What ends it? Her resignation. She has no choice but to quit. Nobody is answering her need. Because we don't even know what it is. Imagine all of your needs every single day and now imagine that you can never, not even once, tell one single person what you need. What a horrifying thing. Those dreams where you are being chased and you are scared and you try to scream for help but nothing comes out of your throat? That is her world. And we, as her parents, watch on in sheer pain and frustration. Just sign it!!! Just try to say something. Anything. And she does. Every single day this brave soul yells out, makes sounds, tries. Not a single day goes by when she doesn't try...
140 comments
Read more

The Unchanged God and His Unchanged Call

The last few years my soul was just so doggone tired that I couldn't write, wouldn't write. I found myself too tired of the haters, too tired of being needed, too tired of advocating and seeing not one soul step forward for a child, a real child.I was sick of telling people about adoption and watching them go on about their lives as if there were not real children depending on their yes. I was tired of seeing the posts about a waiting child die. The anger was consuming me. I was tired of opening up about our reality only to have friends back away from us, from our needs. I was disgusted with people telling me I was too impassioned for the needy people in this world. I was filled with so many emotions. Frankly, I was tired of my own difficult road as well, tired of diapers, feeding times, bathing time, IEP's and teaching teachers how to teach. I wrestled with God about resting. Eventually, I heard him telling me to go to sleep, to rest in the shadow of His wing...
Post a Comment
Read more

This Girl Can

There are moments in every single day that I want to quit. I want to throw in the towel. I want to quit being the mom who is shouting, "Yes, she can!"  It's tiring. No, it's exhaustion that sinks all the way to the bone. It's laying my head on my pillow at night with one thousand thoughts scattering through my head. It's waking up, pushing power on my computer and starting to search for evidence again. It's meeting after meeting after meeting. It's laying my head on my pillow at night and praying for someone else to stand tall and take up this fight for one round so that I can rest. But I have a few things that keep me going. Every night when I do lay my head on my pillow, a memory reel starts in my mind. Every time that I question if I have lost my own mind, I see Ellie standing for the first time. I hear her counting to ten. I see Everlyse taking her first steps. I see all the times they have blown through every single low expectation the w...
Post a Comment
Read more