Recently someone left a comment and implied that it was wrong of me to ask for God to heal my child of autism. They also stated that autism "doesn't need to be healed" and that I need to accept my daughter the way she is.
While I understand where this person is coming from, and I am sorry if these blog posts make you feel like you are different or unwanted because of autism. You aren't, you are special and important to God! I am so sorry for the burden that you have to carry. You must be a courageous and very strong person...
However, you don't know my whole story, either. I know this person may feel like when we are trying to "heal" our children we aren't accepting them or loving them for who they really are...That autism is who they are and they can't get out of that. I suppose that in some cases that may be true. But I do believe that we need to love our children right now and play with them and be with them as they are. My little girl is one of my best friends in the world and I love spending time with her.
But if the work we are doing to help her get better is wrong, why is my daughter getting better with treatments?
My daughter suffers from medical issues, such as immune dysfunction, daily fevers, diarrhea, food sensitivities, yeast overgrowth, and more. My daughter does not have Autism. She is sick! She is so sick it is causing her development to stand still.
My daughter is and has been suffering. She used to scream in pain as I changed her diapers. She cowers in fear over the simplest situations, like washing her hands, or having water run down her head, or playing in the tunnels at McDonalds. She used to be sickly thin and pale due to constant diarrhea and not obtaining the nutrients from her food. While other kids are playing with each other, she is by herself singing. Kids run away from her because all she knows how to do is say "hi" and try to hug them.
My husband and I accepting Kaylee and loving her no matter what but fighting to get into her world and bring her into ours. We love our daughter and even if she still has autistic tendencies and we will still be crazy about her if she stays the same! Just because we are seeking to get her better, it doesn't mean that we don't love her, just the opposite: we are willing to do anything to give her a better life.
Long story short: don't get down on us parents of children with autism, we already have it hard enough. We need help and encouragement.
Amen to all of that Jennie! We as parents do love our children and it causes us great and intense pain to see our children suffer within their daily living environment. To see our children hurting and not knowing why, from the time they are babies and are screaming with agonizing pain in the middle of the night to when they are older and crying of fear for taking a bath or shower. It's not just about the social inadequaties or the delayed academic performance it's just the copeing with daily life and the sensory battles that their poor little soles are having to endure. It makes it all worse when a child can't effectively communicate and get help in fighting these battles that are afflicting pain upon them. How is it wrong? It would be like saying it is wrong to stand up in war and fight and just allow the afflicting pain and suffering of many. No, we must fight and we give everything we have to that fight and give the rest to the Lord for He will prevail! Autism isn't just a characteristic that we see on the outside, it is a defective, destroying mechanism on the inside--a disease in the body. A dysfunctional gut, causes dysfunction in the brain as well as other organs which detoxify harmful toxins from the body, the main one being the liver. This is the underlying root of autism, not the behaviors. So yes, we parents do pray for God to heal our children of autism because He is the leader and commander of our army as we fight the battle of autism for our children!
ReplyDeleteI flew in from the PREACCH loop. This was a lovely post. It reflected everything I've wanted to say to the same people. I will do EVERYTHING to make my boys well. If that's not God's plan, I will love their socks right off of them if they stay the same forever.
ReplyDeleteAmen to that! Thanks for sticking up for me!
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