Will you let yourself be blessed? AND, a Giveaway!!!

Bright red hair.

Sparkling blue eyes.

Pale porcelain skin speckled with a dash of freckles.

A smile that stretched from lips to eyes and melted into your heart a permanent reminder of her face.

Pudgy little fingers made perfect for a constant need of smoothing out her pretty lavender dress.

And clinched as tight as possible to my husband, whom she had just met!!

This was the sight that my eyes beheld on a recent Sunday morning as I walked into the sanctuary at church. Erica immediately released him and came to give me hugs. I think I love this little girl already!

Erica was visiting our church for the first time (hers) with her great-grandmother who has been a teacher to at least one, if not more, of my boys in her Sunday School class every year since we moved to the desert six years ago. Erica had been able to spend the night with Grama Jackie and so she came to church. She loved it! She loved Sunday School! She loved the other children! She loved the people! She is just a love kind of gal, you might say!

Soon after meeting Erica, I realized she is a special needs child. Her Grama was singing in choir and so Erica sat with us. I noticed she didn't talk well but that she was at least 9 years old. That didn't scare me away because I understand special needs children. I just did my best to communicate and gave her lots of hugs. I started asking questions when choir was finished and we had a short pause in the service for greeting. Is she deaf or mute? Does she have autism? The answers were "No."

However, when Erica was born she suffered from a brain injury during the birth process, so those areas of her brain that work to communicate were damaged, having suffered from a lack of oxygen. She knows sign language extremely well, and she can hear every word you say so "don't let her fool ya," Grama told me! "I won't," I promised, and so our new friendship began. Erica decided she was tired and laid down in my lap and fell asleep for the next hour. She cuddled and twisted and found her comfortable niche then fell asleep with no concerns of the world. I was blessed.

I read an article last year that said research had proven children naturally gravitate towards good samaritans. I'm sure they have clinical studies and such that prove that to be true but I have to say it seems more to me that children gravitate towards L-O-V-E. At least that is what my eyes have seen when I watch children, particularly special needs children - in school, church, and on the playgrounds around me. Maybe they are one and the same. I guess you can't really be a good samaritan if you don't have love, or at least compassion, in your heart. Most of the time everyone accepts a child wanting to play or talk with them. I mean, who doesn't love hugs and cuddles from a little one, right?

Too often, though, I have seen something else. Special needs children gravitate towards a person and they are shunned. They aren't allowed to play with "normal" children. Adults tend to have this fear that this different "thing" about a special child will rub off onto their child and they will somehow lose their perfectness. I have experienced this with my own son and cuddled him while the tears washed away the sorrow of his soul put on him by others telling him he wasn't ok.

The Bible says:

"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of
the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were
written in your book before one of them came to be." Psalm 139:
13-16

God is the ONE who created every single person on this great big HUGE planet earth! He KNOWS each and everyone of us and HE made us the way we are for a reason! There is NOT ONE PERSON who is imperfect in His eyes! I love that!

We sing a song at our church. The words simply say: The Lord has blessed me, blessed me, blessed me; The Lord's been good to me! The Lord has blessed me, blessed me, blessed me; the Lord's been good to me! The Lord has blessed me, blessed me blessed me; the Lord's been good to me! No one else can do what the Lord has done! No one else can do... No one else can do what the LORD has done!

AMEN!! I LOVE THAT!! No one else can form a child inside its mother! Science has come a long way but it will never be able to put a soul in a child or know of its every single day of life before they even live those days. In this day and age, science may even look at a child formed by God and say its not good enough and tell the mother carrying it that it should be terminated. Science doesn't know God! Science doesn't know the plans God has for that child! Science can get it wrong!! God NEVER does!!!

So, my question to you is will you let yourself be blessed by touching the life of a special needs child?! Honestly, I have to warn you, though, that it will probably be YOU who is getting the blessing! Can you agree with God that these children are wonderfully made? Take a chance of sharing love and say Hello the next time you see a child who is a little bit different than the other children around them... you'll be so glad you did!

Are you a blessed mom? Would you like to share the news with everyone around you?

We have been blessed this month to be able to offer you a handstamped necklace from Kristen's Custom Creations.

Kristen donates a portion of her proceeds for some of her jewelry to the Gilda Club, which is a non-profit group speciallizing in helping children with cancer.

She has so graciously donated an I Am Blessed necklace for one of our lucky readers!!

Kristen describes this necklace by saying,

'The "I Am Blessed" necklace includes two discs/round Sterling Silver charms, the smaller charm is 13mm and the larger is 16mm. It also includes a Swarovski charm dangle. The charms hang on a sturdy 16 inch snake chain. it has been blackened/antiqued to make the letters stand out.'

All of Kristen's hand stamped creations are just that: hand-stamped! They won't look perfect like a machine stamped, mass produced item but that is what I love about her work! This necklace is just perfect and I love it! I am so thrilled that we can share with one of our readers as well! So, go ahead and leave a comment on any two articles from this month's magazine, and our editors, Amy and Amy, will pick a winner with the random generator, like they do with all of our great giveaways! And, don't forget to head on over to Kristen's Etsy shop to check out her other beautiful designs as well!! **This giveaway ends on May 16th**

Sallie is an off-again, on-again homeschooling mom to her 4 children, ranging from elementary to high school. In her column "The Square Peg", she discusses the challenges of homeschooling a child with disabilities and offers insight to those who sometimes feel all alone in a round hole world.