People Who Get It

This morning I met with a person from our county who gets it. Those of you who have adopted difficult children know the difference between professionals who get it and professionals who don't. This professional is also an adoptive parent and thus she TOTALLY gets it.

We had a good conversation about accessing services for my kids. And then we told stories and laughed.

I have often said that it would be great if we could manufacture a pill that would allow us to be someone else for just a day or a week. For example, it would be great if my kids had to take a pill of one of their siblings who has a disability and be them for a day. Find out how hard they really are trying to hold it together.

Or professionals could take a pill of one of the kids. Or teachers. Or whoever.

And as a parent of a chlid with special needs, I would take the pill. This is not a new idea to me. I have probably blogged about it before. But I really think we underestimate the amount of work it takes from our kids just to appear normal for a short period of time.

But because this pill is an impossibility we have to learn to rely on the people who get it. We have to support each other as adoptive parents and spend time together in places where it is safe for our kids to be themselves. And we have to teach people what it is like, as far as we know, to be our kids. Because our kids can't do it, and somebody has to.