In the October 27, 2014 story in the Daily Bread booklet, I read about Christian high school students who went to Jamaica and saw with their own individual two eyes the meaning of TRUE LOVE. There in Jamaica, they were working in an orphanage for disabled kids and teens. They learned that Donald (who had Cerebral Palsy) was going to be adopted. Let me stop here. If you couldn’t have a baby (for any reason) would you adopt a disabled child? Now before you say yes, think very hard. It wouldn’t be like normal parenting (which is hard already). You would need a lot of resources and a lot of help.

To continue with the story, I read that once Donald’s new parents arrived and embraced their child, the high school students came and started to sing songs of praises for the new family. Donald was beaming! I guess most of them did not imagine someone accepting to have Donald as their child. How wrong were they, and how they underestimated the power of true love.

Let me ask you, would you adopt a disabled child or teen? If you say yes, then why would you? How will you cope with the challenges ahead, taking care of him or her? If you are to adopt and a disabled child, there may be some things to know and be ready to accept.

  • I think as a new parent, you will have to spend more time with him or her to get to know the child. That can help raise him or her. New parents will have to know the disease the child was born with to be able to know how to care for him or her. Talking to other parents with kids with the same disease will help a lot.
  • I think raising a child like Donald may require more resources. The new parents need to have a job to be able to provide for the new kid who for sure would have a number of special needs.
  • I also think new parents would have to consider who would stay with their disabled kids when they are at work.

We have some special needs students in our school (note that we do not call them disable students here in Canada) and they require a teacher around most of the times. I sometimes think the teachers who are around these students MUST have special HEARTS and LOVE, as it is not easy at all. But I see both the special needs students and teacher always SMILING. This makes me wonder why some of us who were born NORMAL, but are always GRUMPY…..I think we need to appreciate the fact that we are normal….

One thing I learned is that, here in Canada, disabled kids go to the same school with other kids and not just locked in disable orphanages. As said before, I think most schools like mine have some special needs students. This makes most students interact with them and know that we are different but we are all human beings that we are at school to learn.

As I am still a child, I really don’t know if I would adopt a disabled child when I grow up and want to become a parent, but that gives me something to think about as I grow up. I know that all I need is REAL LOVE and MONEY. If I have the LOVE, and I do well in school, I will be able to get a good job, and I am sure MONEY will not be a problem. Then it will be a matter of MAKING THIS LOVABLE COMMITMENT into action.

Let me ask you one more time … Would you adopt a special needs (disabled) child?

Angela-Acaye