Wildcard Wednesday: 5 Minutes for Special Needs

Every parent knows that raising children can be a challenge. Even the healthiest, most "by the book" kids require a lot of attention, care, patience and love. Every parent needs support from time to time, in one form or another. When you're the parent of a special needs child, sometimes the level of support or kind of support is a little bit different.

5 Minutes for Special Needs provides just such a forum for this kind of support, for parents of special needs children to share their stories, experiences, advice, heartbreaks and triumphs. For parents who don't have special needs kids, it's a site to learn more about some of the challenges that our family, friends, or kids' friends may be facing. No pity allowed over there -- they know that every kid is a kid and every parent is a parent, and "special needs" or not will never change that.

I encourage you to check out the site, to add the button to your sidebar, and to spread the word. Take a minute to leave a comment, let them know you're reading. There are lots of contributors on the site, so the content is fresh and different all the time. 5 minutes is all it takes to make a difference.

Support. Insight. Inspiration. You'll find it all there.

~*~*~ May you always remember to dance in the rain, and may you have plenty of ladybugs beside you! ~*~*~

Blessings,
Kat

Meet Parker

Meet Parker, aka: Brave Little Hero. The extra chromosome (Down Syndrome) is really the least of his troubles... he's also got pulmonary hypertension, a tethered spinal cord, failure to thrive, bowel obstruction (he's had surgeries), sleep apnea, a trachea tube and a g-tube for feeding. All this, at age 3 and a whopping 23 pounds. Oh, and he's the youngest of six kids.

You might think a kid like that must lay around in a hospital bed all day, probably feeling sorry for himself. Nope, not Parker! He's up and, well, on his way to running. He colors with crayons, he does Eensy Weensy Spider, he laughs, he throws things at his mom, he gets put in time out. He's a three year old boy, for sure!

No one likes to hear about sick children, but if every you need inspiration, a smile, or just want to look at pictures of a really, really cute little kid, go visit Parker and his mom over at Praying for Parker. Parker smiles right through the rain, and will show you that even the smallest, most simple things in life can really mean so much.

~*~*~ May you always remember to dance in the rain, and may you have plenty of ladybugs beside you! ~*~*~

Blessings,
Kat