Quote:
Originally posted by MereMere21
I'm sure your grandparents can attest to the fact that raising a handicapped child takes a great deal of patience and money.
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My grandparents were illiterate so they did the unconventional thing and treated my uncle like their other children. Only difference is that he did things a little latter than my other uncles and aunts and did not go to school until the special school in their small Georgia town would accept Black children as well. I think he was about 15 at the time. As far as money goes, they never had much so he didn't cost them any more money than the other children. In case you are wondering, my uncle was considered severely mentally handicap. He probably had the IQ of a 5 year old, but he could take care of his personal hygiene, tie his shoes (I taught him!
He was in his late teens and I was about 8 )write his name, and remember things that happened better than most people. He loved the Lord and could cuss like a sailor, but he always said he was sorry (to you and the Lord) after he cussed you out! LOL I am sure that if today's medicine was available in 1954 when he was born doctors would have looked at my 40 something year old grandmother who could not read or write, her sharecropper husband who couldn't either, and their 7 other children living in a shack with no running water and said that they should abort him. As a matter of fact, lots of well meaning folks in their small town suggested that they send him to a group home because they said he would be too much of a burden. He wasn't however a burden, but a blessing. I know my grandmother got tired and she worried about him more than her other children, but I don't think she would have done things differently if she could have.
I think people sell themselves short when they say I couldn't handle so and so. You never know what you can do until you try and while I know that everyone on this board is not Christian, I believe that God gives you grace and mercy sufficient to handle whatever storm he places you in.