My niece …
My niece Alanna an amazing woman the mother of two small
boys, both autistic. Alanna had her
children later in life prior to motherhood Alanna worked as a teacher and has
her Master’s Degree in Library Science. She worked with inner City children and
has a heart for the underprivileged child and those who are marginalized in
life.
So if anyone was prepared to deal with two autistic children it was
Alanna. Yet even with her natural abilities to deal with children who are in
crisis, watching her deal with her two demanding little boys is like watching
Master at work. I have never seen her lose her cool with her sons and she is
extremely attentive to their individual needs. I had much less patience with my children and
they were (normal).
I think of Alanna often as a rare (lighting in a bottle)
type of person... One who truly loves her children “unconditionally”
Alanna also makes
sure her sons have the best education they can, the boys are also given physical
and occupational therapy as well to be able to perform in the word as best they
can as well. Alanna’s love covers these little
boys in all areas of their lives and she also works full time along with her
husband to be able to provide for their children…
At her job, Alanna works with extremely difficult children some are criminal
and they are the ones the other teachers do not want to deal with … some of
the stories Alanna tells me in regards to the children she works with are scary
… These children will confront her and verbally abuse her and she cannot take
any personal items into her classroom they will steal them …
Then when she done
with work she picks up her children takes them to therapy sessions, cooks for them, reinforces
any lessons they learned in school … and
gets them calm enough to go to sleep, which is hard for any parent, much harder
with two autistic children and one of her sons is “a runner” … he will just
bolt out of the house and run … yet nothing shakes Alanna’s peace … it is
remarkable ..
So why do I go on and on about Alanna…
She makes me think of God the Father … when
Jesus said “if you as a human parent knows how to do good for your children, how
much more does your Father in Heaven know to do good for you “… WOW …
I have seen Alanna get smacked by her sons, have toys thrown
at her, her sons have a complete melt
down, run away from her down the street where she had to run after them, I have
seen her just sit by their side while they rocked uncontrollably (which autistic children do) … nothing shakes
that woman …
And if God our Father is so much greater in his love for us (as
Jesus said in Scripture) than a parent like Alanna is with her sons... Wow do
not worry about your screw ups in life or your running away from God… He is
right there running after you down the roads of life … just like Alanna is with
her sons
