Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Having a child with developmental issues is not always easy, I will admit. I don’t ever want people to feel sorry for me or have pity on my daughter. We all have struggles in life, just some are bigger than others. With that said, I want to express my gratitude towards the volunteers that came and helped out at the “I Am A Hero” Games this past Saturday. Without you all there, my day would have been ok, but not wonderful.

Maybe I should explain a bit. You see, my week usually consists of hospital visits and usually more than one a week. But, other parents of special needs children go more often than that. We are always the ones to push our children to get them to the next goal, which is usually as simple as sitting or eating. Their therapist and teachers are right there beside us helping us, but we have the the burden of getting them to the goal. Our child is the one that drools, gets laughed at, grunts or makes strange noises in public. Somedays are really hard.

So, on Saturday morning I was sort of expecting to have to be Matthea’s buddy. I probably thought this since I helped organize and the expectation I put on myself to help that day. Anyway, I didn’t. I cheered with with the others. In fact, it was great to see everyone cheering for the “Little Heroes” participating. I took pictures and videoed just like a regular mom. I can’t express all that I feel into words…probably because I process things forever. But, I wanted to say thanks on behalf of all the parents there to those who came and sacrificed a beautiful Saturday morning. You allowed each of us a chance to watch our child succeed. They finished a goal at each event and that was wonderful.

Thanks for letting me be “Just a Mom”!

Well, since this is our front page, we better tell you who we are and what Taiwan Sunshine is.

You see, six years ago, God gave us a little girl.  Our daughter was born pre-mature, underweight, but REALLY cute.  At that time we were living in China.  That first fall and winter, we were surprised by how often she got sick and how “floppy” she was.  And — she sounded just like a little kitten when she cried.  After a very serious illness in the spring, three medical evacuations – quite the story in itself – we finally were able to get a diagnosis: 5p- also known as Cri-du-Chat Syndrome, also known as Cat’s Cry Syndrome, also known as LeJeune’s Syndrome, also known as “We don’t have any idea what you are talking about!”  Needless to say, we started to do lot of research and found that our daughter would be mentally and physically disabled for the rest of her life.   

We did decide to go back to China at that time, but only on a year-t0-year basis.  You see, we knew that God wanted us to be there and that he would give us the strength and resources that we would need.  And that is exactly what happened.  We had two more wonderful years there.  At that time, though, it became very clear that we needed to move to a country that had better medical and therapy resources.  After a short search, we moved to Taipei, Taiwan.  The medical facilities, resources, therapies were great and our daughter improved so much! 

As we were living in Taiwan, though, we realized that there were many other families with special needs children that seemed very lost and hopeless.  In Taiwan, it is still often seen as an embarrassment or shame to have children that are not ‘perfect.’  We were able to have great conversations and realized that there was a void that we could fill!  Because we have a special needs child ourselves, there is an automatic ‘heart – t0 – heart’ connection.  We could relate to them, encourage them, cry with them, learn with them, and, most importantly, tell them about the HOPE that we have. 

We shared this vision with some of our very good friends and together, we decided to form a legal not-for-profit association.  This would allow us to work more easily with schools, hospitals, and other government organizations.  We would be able to give tax-deductible receipts in Taiwan.  Since our Taiwan Sunshine relies on the generous financial support of others, this was so important.  Now, our dream is finally a reality! 

Oh, one more thing — why does our website say ‘fearfully and wonderfully made?’  This actually comes from a poem in the Bible, from the book of Psalms.  In this section, the poet says, ‘I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.  Your works are wonderful, I know that full well.’  He is talking about how God already knew him and made him fearfully and wonderfully.  In other words, he is not a mistake, an accident, a ‘sloppy’ thing!  God did not run out time when he was making him!  We believe that this is true for all of us.  God made each of us fearfully and wonderfully.  That includes our kids, no matter what kind of ‘disability’ they have! 

We hope that through Taiwan Sunshine, there will be such a radical shift in Taiwan’s culture to understand that each of these kids is valuable – not because of what they can contribute, but because they were made by God – with a specific purpose that only they can accomplish.  We hope that Taiwan Sunshine will communicate that sense of HOPE with every family we come in contact with. 

Will you help us?