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What follows is an essay Special Care received from a volunteer's parent.
FORGOTTEN HEROES
We are all blessed in so many ways. God touches our lives and works through us, even at times unnoticed. And sometimes, oftentimes we don't realize the "grace" moments until after they are gone. Too often we are living in the past or future without really living in "today." So we miss the quiet happenings around us. It is right that we learn to accept our lives as a "blessing". Even when things seem "so tough" God is with us and we should take comfort in that. But we are human and we do get wrapped up in our own challenges anyway. We get up, get dressed and hurry to work. There are ballgames, programs, meetings, bills, "daily crisis", joys, stress, laundry, and the list goes on and on. And we feel that we have so much, too much too do and no time. And we take it all for granted.
However, there are many who would consider all our "chores" and "stresses" of "ordinary life" a luxury. These are to me, our forgotten heroes.
My daughter Emily is fourteen. A freshman in High School, she is involved in so many things, but one club has a made a significant and positive impact on her and on me. A requirement of "Key Club" is public service. Every week "Em" volunteers at "Special Care". Special Care is indeed a special place and so are the people who work there, and the people who need their services. At Special Care they provide day care and a haven for children who have special challenges in their lives.
Em spends her time taking care of babies. All shapes, sizes, colors and kinds of little babies. And as Em has so pointedly taught me, they are all special. You see, many of these little ones have physical and mental challenges most of us have never had to deal with. But Em is so excited when she gets in the car when I pick her up talking about and describing her day with the little ones. She knows them all by name and watches and helps them just "be". These babies are gentle little souls who smile, laugh, and cry and capture your heart. Sure there are sad moments because, you see, some of these babies may never be "normal" and face such long odds and tough challenges. But I have learned through her eyes, they are all beautiful little people and gifts from God in their way.
And I think of the folks that work there and their dedication and compassion. And I think of the parents of these special ones. How do they do it? How much strength and courage they must have because their lives unlike ours, are as constant caregivers in the greatest sense of the word. Their days are of helping, holding, feeding, changing and dealing with so many special needs that we take so much for granted as routine. Just the act of walking is a challenge for some of their children. Let alone, whether what they wear or eat matter, or are they going to be late for school or soccer. For them soccer may be an impossible dream. Yet, they get up everyday and face a routine of trial, challenge, despair and I hope, joy as well.
These are the "forgotten heroes. As I wait in the Special Care parking lot, I see them come, park their cars and specially equipped SUV's or Vans and get out and go in to get their kids. They are "ordinary" and normal people like all of us. They have jobs and mortgages and deal with the same things we do. Some of the same things that get us down yet much more. Their daily routine alone would wear us out. But they don't complain, they smile and bring their children out and help them into the car or push them in their wheel chairs. And you can see that they love them very, very much. For I hope to them their children, and I believe they are, are special blessings from heaven. All of God's children are special. And love does not depend on being a glamorous model or star athlete but comes from the heart no matter who we are, or what we look like.
Through Em's eyes I have seen many blessings and know we are all special. God blesses us in ways we cannot understand. I feel blessed to just be awakened to these "forgotten heroes" whose worlds are so like, yet unlike ours. The other day a young man pulled into the lot and his wife waited in the SUV. He got a wheel chair out of the back and went into the building. When he came out their was one little girl dressed in a beautiful red outfit in the wheelchair and walking behind them, dressed just alike was here sister who looked to be about the same age. A family touched by an unasked for physical impairment or disease but a true family just the same. Coping and functioning as best they could to be "normal" in not so normal circumstances. This was not something that they do once a week. This IS their life. How blessed we are to be "normal" but how blessed they are to have the strength and courage to go on. God's love knows no boundaries and His grace is for all of us, regardless of circumstance.
I think of these "forgotten heroes" often now. When I begin to feel that life is getting to tough or normal seems to be drudgery. I quickly can get my reality check when I think of these special people, at Special Care, and thanks to God they do care. And I think of the parents who try their best to make the lives of their special kids, special. And thanks to God that we can be awakened to these quiet, unassuming folks in our midst who really don't ask for anything but for whom we can offer our prayers. And I know God will hear them for they are especially blessed.
Grace and Peace,
Phil Busey
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