Less Than Perfect

Tonight I was watching "The Practice" which is one of my very favorite series.  The leading lady, Addison, is a doctor who delivers babies, but more importantly she deals mostly with pregnancies with difficult circumstances.  So in this episode a former patient sues Addison for not recommending that she have an abortion.  During the pregnancy Addison diagnosed the baby with Spina Bifida.  She performed an in-utero surgery, a new procedure, and in fact it worked out well.  The child was able to do more than a lot of children with the disease.

Sadly, this was not enough for the mother.  Caring for a child with a disability is difficult and she couldn't handle it.  The thing that really irks me is that one of the other doctors in Addison's practice says that some women just can't handle raising a child that is, "less than perfect."  This description of disabled children makes me angry beyond belief.

My little boy has Cerebral Palsy and I would NEVER describe him as less than perfect.  He is a miracle. Plain and simple, he is AMAZING.  I guess my definition of perfect is just different than some people's. To me, perfect is the boy that can't move the way "normal" people can but who wakes up every day with a huge smile on his face and conquers tasks that most people take for granted.  Perfect is the child that works ten times harder than "normal" children to perform tasks they do easily because he has more determination than most people have ever seen.

I ask you this.  How often do you see a child with a physical or mental disability looking unhappy?  A whole lot less often than other kids!  I rarely see one of these little angels looking anything but happy.  They are a gift from God and I feel truly blessed that he saw me as a fit person to raise one of these special, and absolutely wonderful, differently-abled children.  My little boy is the light of my life and the light of many other lives as well.  He makes people smile wherever he goes and I am proud to call him my son.