Natalie Maxwell

Being pro-life is more than a bumper sticker or a picket sign. Being pro-life isn’t just about the words we say or the box we check on a ballot. Being pro-life is a way of life.

When parenting a child with special needs, it’s easy to fix your eyes on the next surgery, therapy, diet or appointment. But it’s often difficult to simply embrace and enjoy your child in the moment.

If there’s nothing we could ever do to deserve God’s love, then we would not only see God’s heart for those with disabilities, but for us all.

When it comes to disability inclusion, most people want to love well but do not know what that looks like or where to start.

We often forget that many Bible stories contain heroes, God’s chosen, who faced unique personal challenges and hardships.

The inclusion of people with disabilities in our churches isn’t merely a pro-life issue. It is also a Biblical one.

My whole life I had always struggled with letting others in. Call it being an introvert, shy, or trust issues, but somewhere along the way I realized the less I really put my heart out there, the less I would get hurt. C.S. Lewis described it much more …

So often we think we need the answers before we can be equipped to love and serve, but I truly believe it all starts with a heart that’s willing to say, “I choose you.”

There is no getting around it, living through a pandemic is tough for everyone. But if you are the parent of a child with special needs, this time can be even more stressful and intimidating. I believe the key to helping our kids process and adjust to the changes they are facing is modeling for them, in an authentic way, our own feelings. Our kids need us to be strong for them, but they also need us to be real with them, to tell them it’s okay to be sad and scared.

Looking back, it’s funny to me how God had to convince us that a special needs adoption was the right path for our family – because I now consider every adoption to be “special needs.”

The world labels our oldest son as disabled, but most days I don’t see it that way. His disabilities do not define him. Still, I can’t deny the heartache I sometimes feel when I find myself comparing our eldest to his siblings.

I realized with newfound clarity that the miracle of adoption has zero to do with me and everything to do with the One who invented it.