The following is a story told by a dad from the spina bifida support group that is my "online family". The best resource out there if you ask me! You can check it out at -
http://community.babycenter.com/groups/a3825/spina_bifida_kids
"I watched a movie called "Letters to God": http://www.letterstogodthemovie.com/ . You can check out the link for the story-line.
I usually don't much go in for the overtly-christian-made-for-sunday-afternoon-movie thing. The production quality / acting is usually poor and the message is usually heavy-handed. This movie is all of those things.
However, there were a couple of gems in the story (I had to watch the WHOLE THING as my in-laws were there).
In one scene, a grandfather explains to the boy with lukemia that his condition causes people to think about themselves in a way they have never had to before. When people see a bright, happy, cheerful boy with a dibilitating disease, they are forced to examine the things that they are constantly complaining about that are small by comparison.
People can't always and don't always know how to react. Some will tease, some will run in fear, some will over-compensate in kindness.
Our kiddos rock people's world on a daily basis - in some of the same ways they rocked ours when we first got the diagnosis.
I guess my point is, when I counsel with parents who are expecting an extraordinary child like ours or I pass by a stranger at the mall who stops dead in their tracks when Annie (his daughter) zips by in her wheelchair, I try to muster compassion for themand think to myself, "I know - I didn't know how to react when I heard the news either".
People respond in nutty ways sometimes - and the nuttier the response, the bigger the opportunity for grace."
This really hit home for me as it is so hard to listen to what people say to me or Tanner. Some people say the most ignorant things or just stare.
Tanner is so special!
And cute too!
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