“It’s very lonely facing the world as a married woman yet so very much a single mom with an additional adult child”
In the special needs world, there are entire organizations that employ teams of full-time staff whose sole mission is to help families navigate the bureaucratic systems to obtain the services their special children need, deserve, and thrive on. Mama Bears are absolutely necessary, albeit in the presence and with the support of Papa.
R. Levy
I always appreciate Esther Kurtz’s columns and her insights about the interplay between bitachon/emunah/hishtadlus. I was a bit concerned that the piece about Devorah’s daughter receiving special needs services only with the sending of one email may have given a misleading message to some parents, especially new ones, facing a lifetime ahead with a special needs child.
As a parent of a special needs child, who has worked hard to achieve a synthesis of bitachon and hishtadlus, I wanted to share an additional piece to this picture: the complexity and delicateness of the process of receiving services for one’s child. It’s a completely time-consuming and ongoing process, often lasting for the entirety of the child’s life — something very difficult for parents of non-special needs children (and even for parents of special needs children who are younger, and are just getting used to the new reality) to grasp.
Often, the reality across many states is that children in the special needs system don’t get the services they need without a very effective set of advocates, beginning with their parents and extending to concentric circles of other advocates working on behalf of a child.
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