Between Work & Family

With two special needs children at home, life surely, isn’t, easy one bit, translated…

I always kept that habit of clipping the newspaper articles, and I’d, taken my collection out every now and then to savor, and it’d always, given me new insights on life every time I’d sorted through the pieces I collected.

I saw an excerpt from a book, “Should We Quit Our Jobs Because We Have a Special Needs Child?”, it’d touched me.  I made a decent enough living before I married, working, after I married, my eldest daughter was born, and before she was two, she was given to my mother-in-law to care, when we took her in to get her shots at one, the physician noted how she didn’t say many words or sentences, but everybody said, that she will catch up, she’s just, a late bloomer, and I’d, not taken the physician’s words too seriously.

loving her special needs child…photo from online

Later I was pregnant with my second, and I can only, send my daughter to preschool.  A few short days in, the director of the preschool found that she wasn’t, quite the same, and, filed for a special education instructor to help her, and, it’d, helped relieved my stress somewhat.  And, after the birth of my second daughter, the doctor found something abnormal again, and, the test results still showed negative, and we took her to the major hospitals, and there, the diagnosis of “Developmentally Delayed” was given to her.  My life had, shifted major again, I’d switched from the full-time to part-time, and, became that hare that raced with time later, pushing my younger daughter out on her stroller, with my child on my back, rushing to catch the buses, worried that I may miss out on the early intervention program years of before age six.

And by now, my income was reduced to half of what I used to make, and, I went from being a well-dressed working woman, to a plain housewife and a mother.  Focused on taking care of my two daughters, and, I’d, forgotten, to take care of me in the processes.

Thankfully, there are the support systems of the early intervention programs as well as the mothers in physical therapy, I’d started, learning to coexist in peace with the stresses, I’m grateful for my boss, my coworkers’ understanding, that my life is, not that, imbalanced.

With two special needs children at home, maybe, I can’t be, a fitting mother, but I’m grateful, that I have the part-time work to reduce the stresses, because, I need to take good care of my self, then I will be able to, take good care of my children.  I hope, that in the future, my two babies will grow up healthy and happy.

So, this, is the wish a mother has for her two special needs children, she didn’t CARE if they will be making the good grades, or if they will succeed in life as they become adults, only wanted them to be happy, and healthy, because, when you have special needs children, you can’t expect anything from the normal developmental processes to be met, you can only take one day, one tiny little step at a time, and be there, by your children’s sides, to offer them the support they need from you.