I order my coconut latte, sit on the hard antique bench and wait for a friend that God has placed before me. She sips her soda and I sip my too-hot-for-kelly latte. We visit about things most friends don't visit about. Words like cognitive ablility, autism, cerebral palsy, IEP, and para are passed back in forth. Situations that only we can understand because we are living the life of raising our children with special needs. Sometimes I get frusterated because people can't understand why some comments can feel like they are stabbing my stomach. I don't blame others for not understanding. How are they suppose to understand? They arn't. This is so much easier for me to state because I found a friend the understands how much it hurts, when it hurts and exactly what it feels like. We are very similar in our lives. We trust in God, we may question Him, but we trust and keeping listening. After a long visit, I feel like I have known this mom forever. I feel so blessed to have her support and guidance!
With Thanksgiving coming up, I am feeling very thankful for many things in my life and wanted to remember this visit.
Thankful for the awesome friends God has given me. One of the best gifts!
You are blessed Kelly. As this autism thing that we're beginning to navigate comes to a critical point in regard to school, I'm really wishing I had a friend like that.
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful that you got to connect with this person, to freely talk about things that you might not say around others.
ReplyDeleteYou say, "I feel like I have known this mom forever" and that is so great. It can be a rare thing to just instantly connect with someone - there is usually some sort of painful common ground in order to make that happen. How great that you can be an encouragement to each other.