By Kelly Wilton
As parents of kids with disabilities, at some point we are all asked the question – “How do you do it?”… usually followed by, “ I couldn’t do what you do!”
How do we do what?
How do we care for our child? How do we fight for our child? How do we advocate for our child?
We do all of it because of LOVE.
It is as simple as that.
Even in our darkest moments, love will find a way to remind us that it is stronger than anything else.
It’s stronger than our egos, our personal ambitions and our inner critic. LOVE is our ‘why’.
Unfortunately, in our very visual world, the perception of what someone sees when they glance at us or take a short glimpse into our lives is not the same as our reality.
“So hard.” “So sad.” “What a shame”, are just a few things I’ve had said to me. If you could only feel the love that I have for my child, rather than just what you see with your eyes, you may understand that our life is none of those things.
If you feel what I feel daily, you would do it too. In fact, you COULD do it too.
So next time, you see someone and you start to think – “How do you do it?”, remember, just like the people you love in your life, these little human beings are the people we love in our life.
Every time you interact with another family like mine, pause for a second, open your mind and you might learn something new. Each time you repeat the words “I couldn’t do it, I wouldn’t be able to do it”, you are living with a closed mind.
And that is something I no longer do.
