A year ago I wrote these words on the comments section of a blog written by a mom who has gone before me with her own premature son. She re-posted them in this post and I re-found them while surfing the web this evening. I found it to be such a treasure that I thought I'd share.
Folks, we are all enough. Whatever or wherever you are, it is, simply, enough.
Folks, we are all enough. Whatever or wherever you are, it is, simply, enough.
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I worked with non-verbal, non-ambulatory adults before having my second trimester baby. They kindly taught me that I was an intellectual snob. If you'd asked me, "Do you think all people have value?" I would have said yes. But secretly, in that part of me I wasn't even aware existed, my actions showed that I believe people had to be smart enough, bright enough, fast enough, good enough. They had to have something that they were best at, and I was constantly measuring myself to see if I was "enough" of anything.
My adult special needs clients quickly became friends. And they weren't fast enough, smart enough, etc. enough at anything. But yet they were enough.
Now when people in my very brainy world (full of philosophers and academics) talk about what it is to be human, I think of these friends. If their definition does not include my friends, it is a false definition, because in so many ways these friends taught me how to be human better than my lofty education ever could.
I know that sounds ideal and romanticized, but the lessons I learned from them were ones that no textbook could have taught me.
The lessons I learned from them were the ones that allowed us to, without hesitating, say "yes, resuscitate our son, because if he can live - even if it's as a non-verbal and non-ambulatory person, if he can even have a chance at life, it is worth it."
And it has been so worth it.
