What a child with Down syndrome has taught his mother. by Barbara Curtis My son Jonathan has a little extra. A little extra enthusiasm, a little extra innocence, a little extra charm. Oh, and did I mention an extra chromosome? The one on the twenty-first pair that inspires so much fear in parents-to-be. I…
Category: Children
Love Big Enough to Share
Gaining more through letting go. by Mary Roedema as told to Sharon M. Knudson “I think I know who Kristin’s birth mother is.” These words hurtled at me during a telephone call from my new friend, Pam. My daughter, Kristin, had become best friends with Pam’s daughter, and she’d called our house asking for…
I Couldn’t Change My Son
by J. Grant Swank, Jr. When my wife and I adopted Jay, he was two-and-a-half months old. The only details we knew about his birth parents were some medical specifics provided by his birth mother to the social worker. Bringing Jay into our family was such a joy. We were rightly proud the first…
Lessons from Shela
We’re never too old to learn from our children. by Lettie Kirkpatrick Burress “Your daughter has a terminal muscle disease. She will never walk or gain strength but will weaken progressively. She has only six months to a year to live.” This pronouncement came from a doctor on Shela’s first birthday. As it turned…
Hurricane John
by Marcia Alice Mitchell Fierce wind bowed the tree tops and buffeted the vines that grew against our house. I snuggled in our warm living room and watched Hurricane Carol destroy the familiar and redesign our street to a new beauty. At age eleven I loved storms, but this was my first hurricane. Before…
How Autism Changed My Life
A mother helps others by helping her son. by Laura Corby as told to Genetta Adair I’m not the same person I was eight years ago. That’s when my son with autism, Chad, was born. Although my husband, Wayne, and I had already experienced an autism spectrum disorder with our firstborn, Lexi, we hadn’t…
Homeschooling: Getting Started
by Terri White In recent years, an “old original” has made a phenomenal comeback. Home schooling, an educational movement with roots that date to colonial times, remains legal in every state today. Many great leaders, such as John Quincy Adams, William Penn, Thomas Edison, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, General George Patton, and General…
God’s List
Surrendering to divine priorities. by Crystal Kupper Please be wrong, I begged the pregnancy test. It’s too early! It was my twenty-second birthday, and this was the last present I wanted. Panic flooded my mind: What about the graduate school application I had been completing minutes earlier? What would my husband think? Was I…
Help for Dysfunctional Families
by Dale Lawson “I don’t want to influence my children in religion. I want them to make up their own minds.” This philosophy prevails in our society — to our undoing. Families guided by it rapidly slip into dysfunction, because parental example greatly impacts children and their choices, whether intentionally or not. Negative attitudes,…
Advice for Parents of Prodigals
How to live in hope despite the discouragementof a wayward child. by Rita Platt The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit (Psalm 34:18). If you are embroiled in a heart-crushing storm with a prodigal child, you are not alone. The Lord is with you in the…