Patrick Baldwin - Parenting Special Needs Children: A Christian Guide to Parenting Children with ADHD, Autism, Aspergers, and other Psychological, Behavioral, or Physiological Disorders

Parenting Special Needs Children

A Christian Guide to Parenting Children with ADHD, Autism, Aspergers, and other Psychological, Behavioral, or Physiological Disorders

By: Patrick Baldwin

Copyright 2017

American Christian Defense Alliance, Inc.

Baltimore, Maryland

ACDAInc.Org

All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means, including scanning, photocopying, or otherwise without prior written permission of the copyright holder.

Special Request

T hank you for purchasing our book and supporting our Ministry. We actually have two requests To Pray for Our Ministry and to Read this Book All the Way through. No Ministry can Survive without Prayers and Support so we ask you to keep our Ministry in Your Daily Prayers and Pray as the Lord leads.

We encourage you to Read the Book you purchased all the way through. Many Books NEVER Get Read, and the ones that do only get read the first few pages.

One of our Special Request is that if you are serious about learning the material in this book that you take time to actually read this book in its entirety all the way through.

We all lead such busy lives nowadays and can get side tracked so easily, please take a moment to consider my words and read to the end of the book and keep us in Your Prayers.

Thank You once again for purchase. We deeply appreciate Your Prayers and Support and know that God will Bless You as You continue to Bless this Ministry.

Dedication

T his book is dedicated to the Parents of Special Needs Children and all those that help support you. May you continue to be a light in the darkness guiding the way. Your courage, perseverance, faith and love reflect the best attributes that all parents should strive for God Bless You and Your Family.

Forward

H aving worked for close to 20 years with those in our society that are considered some of the most vulnerable, I wanted to write this book to offer Biblical Guidance for the Christian Parent.

Often times we may become overwhelmed with the thoughts, responsibilities, and day to day grind that having a special needs child can bring to your life. It is critical to see Your Child through the Eyes of God and to Keep Your Focus on Jesus Christ along the Way.

I truly Pray that this book will be a Blessing to You and Your Family and hope that You will share it with other Christian Parents who may be also dealing with the challenges of Parenting a Special Needs Child.

God Bless You

Chapter 1: You Are Going to be the Parent of a Special Needs Child

W hen we see the little line on the pregnancy test saying there is a baby growing inside of you, the last thing you probably think about (or one of the last things) is whether or not your baby will have special needs when it comes to their physical, mental, or emotional wellbeing.

You arent thinking about whether or not you will be able to afford special equipment they might need to live. You arent thinking about what your insurance will and wont cover and what kind of help you can get to make up the difference. You arent thinking about whether or not your house will work for a wheelchair, if your boss will allow you to work from home or how you will juggle work and five or six doctors appointments a month (or possibly in a week). You arent thinking about the fact that your babythe one youve just metis one of the millions of children in this country that will receive some form of special education when he or she goes to school. And thats providing he or she can go to school.

No, you arent thinking about those things at all. You are thinking about whether the baby is a boy or girl, when the due date will be, who to share the happy news with first (other than your spouse, of course), and you even start rolling possible names around in your mind. In other words, your thoughts are focused on the joy that comes from bringing a new baby into this world.

Well guess what? Bringing a new baby into this world regardless of whether or not they have special needs is a joy. Each and every tiny little life that takes their first breath after working their way into this world is a cause for celebration and joy because we are all fearfully and wonderfully made by the LORD God, our Creator.

Nevertheless, learning your child has special needswhether you find out prior to or immediately after their birth, or a few months or years down the roadis difficult. Your love for your child instinctively wants them to be normal. You dont want them to have to struggle. You dont want them to have to go through the experience of feeling different from the rest of the kids or to experience the loneliness often felt from being left out of so many things kids like to do. You dont want to see the hurt in their eyes and know their hearts are breaking when they are made fun of or ostracized by their peers.

Whats more, you cant help worrying about how their condition or circumstances is going to affect your life and the lives of other family members. And then you start feeling guilty for feeling and thinking that way; making you even more anxious. Am I right? You know I am. But the GREAT news is that it is perfectly normal and okay to feel and think these thingsas long as you are near enough to Jesus to dump it all at His feet so that he can replace all of those things with what you need in order to do the very special job you have been given by God to do.

Thats rightbeing given the responsibility of parenting a child with special needs is NOT a form of discipline or punishment. Instead, God is saying, I have a special job for you because your hearts capacity to love and nurture is above and beyond what is normal. I created you with the ability to see beyond the obvious into the heart and soul of one of my children, so I need you to raise them up for me.