I love how God will send you little bits of encouragement when you really need it. Today that encouragement for me came when Landon’s doctor called me and talked to me about applying for disability for Landon. She said it seemed like we would have a pretty good shot at it based on his medical need.
You might be saying, what? How is that good?
If you don’t have a severely disabled or special needs person in your life, this might not seem like a big deal, but it is. Landon requires full time care and actually needs way more intensive therapies than we can afford. He qualifies for them. He has been approved for them. But then at the last minute everything falls through, simply because insurance won’t cover it. And we would have to pay out of pocket, private pay for 30 hours per week of therapy. So it doesn’t happen. It couldn’t happen.
But today, Landon’s doctor gave us the go ahead to proceed with this process of applying for his disability. What I’m about to say might sound like a negative statement. Or the following may sound like a person who doesn’t have faith. But it is neither. It is simply a factual statement.
The statement is this:
Landon requires 24/7 intensive caretaking and unless Jesus does a miracle, he always will.
He has needed special care the first 8 years of his life, he requires it currently, and it will be a necessity in his future. (Can God work a miracle? Absolutely!!! And we pray for this daily!!!) But if the miracle doesn’t happen, the fact remains that he needs care.
Back to what I said earlier. Today I had a glimmer of encouragement and hope when the doctor told us that Landon would more than likely qualify for disability based on his medical need. His medical needs would be able to be met and they really haven’t been the past 8 years. Oh we’ve tried. We’ve been in occupational therapy, speech therapy, self contained special classroom, tried many medications, tried natural supplements, tried dietary modifications, tried different exercises/activities, been evaluated more than once for applied behavioral analysis therapy, and on and on.
Even if we get disability funding and Landon makes zero progress ever, one thing he will have is financial assistance. He will have that support and hopefully before he is an adult. We are totally aware that his disability application may get denied several times before it is approved. But in my heart, I believe that he will get this assistance before he is an adult. That is my goal. To do whatever I can to make sure he is taken care of and that we have given it and him our all navigating this “black hole of autism”and disability.
Now if you don’t have a child with a severe disability like we do, you might not be able to relate to all of the above, but if you are a parent, I’m sure you long for your child to have what they need in life. You want them to be provided for and given the best opportunities at a successful life.
God is that way with us. He wants to give us good gifts. Even if we are belligerent and difficult and non-compliant. Even if we don’t communicate with him, throw tantrums, and give him nothing but bad behavior, He still wants to provide good things for us, to care for us, to love us. Like we care for and love Landon. I’m thankful for that kind of love.
Matthew 7:11
If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!
Matthew 6:25-34
Therefore I tell you, do not worry(B) about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.(C) Are you not much more valuable than they?(D) 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life[a]?(E)28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor(F) was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?(G) 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.(H) 33 But seek first his kingdom(I) and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.(J) 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Romans 5:8
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Your friend,
Tiffany
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