I mentioned a question in a previous blog that I received in an email from a college student who wanted to ask me about parenting special needs children for a project she was working on. Boy did she ask some loaded questions. I thought I would share another of her questions with you along with my response.

“What obstacles have you overcome as a result of adopting special needs children?”

One of the first things we learned was how to give injections.
We have learned American Sign Language.
We have learned to ignore many bad behaviors.
We learned to sympathize and communicate with birth families, even if they abused their children.
We have learned not to expect a thank you or appreciation from the children or anyone else.
We have learned compromise to work with a team of therapist, doctors, psychiatrist, schools, and other professionals to develop plans to help children.
We provided respite care to families with difficult children for about 10 years to give them monthly breaks away from their children to help preserve placement.
Sometimes the children tried to play my husband and me against each other. The one we adopted at the age of nine nearly ended our marriage ten years ago. We learned to unite and not let the children play games between us and between their birth families and us. Children in an open adoption situation sometimes play both sets of parents against each other in the same way that children of divorced parents sometimes do.
I used to think that people whom homeschooled their children were a little weird. Now I teach my children at home, which began because of their special needs.
A career used to be important to me; I retired from cost accounting 12 years ago while in my early 30’s.
I used to be organized and my house was always clean. Now it is cleaned once a day and the rest of the day, it isn’t clean. It is also cluttered and in a fluctuating state of disarray.

Would you like to share your hurdles?

AdoptionWeek e-Magazine To subscribe visit AdoptionWeek.com

For information/instructions on how to subscribe FREE to your favorite AdoptionBlogs, please visit this link. your favorite AdoptionBlogs

Should I Try Medication Now or Wait
Time Alone? – Living with FAS and ADHD
How to Choose a Psychiatrist
It’s True! Adopting Special Needs Children Can Make You Nuts
Did You Ever Think, “My Child’s Special Needs Are Too Much to Handle?”
photo credit