Enjoying the holidays with a food allergy sounds like an oxymoron doesn’t it? After all, eating together is an integral component of the holiday season. I looked forward to making our traditional holiday foods until I was diagnosed with a dairy allergy in 2012. What was to enjoy about the holidays when the foods associated with it were off limits to me?
It was a short, ten-minute drive from the hotel to the residential facility. I maintained composure while I navigated the busy public roads, and then residential streets. I had a whole range of emotions racing through my body, mind and spirit as we pulled into the campus. This was not just a pleasure drive or a routine errand, this was a significant milestone in the life of my son and our family.
While Halloween is a fun time of year for many children, it can be a really difficult time for some, including many children with additional/special needs. For them it can be a confusing, anxiety-inducing, or even utterly terrifying time. But it doesn’t have to be like that. If we stop for a moment to think about the things they might find hard and how to put things in place to help them, children with special needs can safely join in the fun, too. So what are some of the things about Halloween that children with additional needs can find hard?
“While we’ve had many years of travel speaking together on marriage, discipleship, and other topics, we are seldom alone and ‘just us’”Joe & Cindi Ferrini write on the struggle of never truly being along as special needs parents, and the importance of making time “just for us.”
I vividly remember the moment the pediatrician gently told my husband and I that our newborn was not the picture of health we envisioned. Just hours after her birth, I was resting in the hospital bed dressed in a stylish oversized gown. I was counting down the hours until we were discharged with only normal, first-time parent worries crossing my mind. Then, everything changed.
I hear the music and sway to it with a smile, but do I really feel that way? Do you feel that way? I can honestly say that sometimes the added pressure of buying and wrapping gifts, decorating, sending greetings, baking, and all the rest can be very overwhelming. To help me in this process, I’ve had to put a few things in place that sometimes gets laughs, maybe even ridiculed. Here are a few thing that have helped in my life and for our family.
