Give It To God...

As we sail through this journey we call life, we come across different people; some good, some bad and others in between.  Only a certain few succeed in leaving an impact on our lives.  One of those people is a teacher/friend whom I will refer to as Mrs. “R”.

The longer I know Mrs. “R”, the more amazed I am by her. I admire her strength; her calmness and her smiling face, no matter what she was going through.  I respect her as a person and a friend and most of all I applaud her unfailing “Rock-as-Gibraltar” Faith that has allowed her to surmount tremendous difficulties.

Mrs. “R” walked into our lives more than ten years ago when she literally walked into our home to work with my special needs daughter. We developed a friendship that blossomed for sometime but then drifted apart due to no fault of hers.  I was riding on the “I-will-fix-my-special-needs-child” wagon and did not want or need any diversion from that mission. Anyone else would have probably held a grudge, but not Mrs. “R”.  I was happy that we were able to pick up our friendship a few years later and resume it as if nothing had ever occurred in the past. 

Mrs. “R” became very ill with cancer this past fall. I desperately wanted to stand by her side and help in any way that I could.  It seems that God led me in a different way for my mother fell very ill also and was diagnosed with a brain aneurism only a week after Mrs. “R’s” diagnoses.  My family was thrown into a complex whirlwind of medical as well as emotional traumas.  Not only did the procedure to save my mother had left her disabled  but the lack of medical insurance contributed to mountains of financial burdens that added more stress to the situation. Needless to say, our sorrows consumed our family and we just had no more reserve for anything else.

In spite of all this, I never once forgot Mrs. “R”. I wondered about how she was doing and prayed for whatever God’s plan was for her.  He had not let her down in the past, so I knew that His intervention would pull her through this time around also.   

I was both glad and relieved when I saw Mrs. “R” on the first day of summer school. She had overcome her illness and was ready to get back to doing what she loved the most, being a teacher to “Her” special needs kids.  She was assigned a class at my special needs daughter’s summer school and looked wonderful as she welcomed “Her” kids to school. 

As we hugged and embraced that first morning, I finally explained what has been going on in my family’s situation to Mrs. “R”. I really wanted her to know that I had not forgotten about her.  She informed me of her ordeal and what had happened during the months I couldn’t contact her.  It has been a very rocky road for both Mrs. “R” and my family.  In spite of all that, Mrs. “R” continued to smile.  She brightened up my morning with that smile.  It didn’t surprise me at all to find that she was

comforting me when I should have been comforting her.  Upon listening to my story, she held my hands and looked straight into my eyes and sealed our friendship with one statement: “Just give it to God and don’t ever take it back”…

Thank you Mrs. “R” for being the type of person God has intended for you to be.

© Copyright 2013 .Najwa S. Hirn. All rights reserved

Home Coming Queen..

Around this time every year, Nature celebrates the coming of spring.  Flowers and shrubs begin to erupt slowly. As winter bids its farewell, I see the new greenery mixed with a rainbow of spring colors emerging everywhere and adorning God’s beautiful earth. New life starts peaking gradually, enveloping us with its glory and promising us the wonders that God has created.

Spring brings the birth of many things, among them, my special needs daughter, Alexandra.  It has been fifteen years since my child entered the world so unexpectedly thirteen weeks too soon.  She came, but a mere, twelve ounces in weight and eight inches in length. In spite of this, though, she arrived kicking her legs and arms just as any other new born would. She was claiming this world as her own. I can almost hear her stating: “look out world for here I come”.

For the past five years, since Alex’s tenth birthday to be exact, I had taken it upon myself to write a birthday post for her. It is my way of honoring my daughter for what she has had to endure during the first years of her life. It is my way of celebrating her and thanking God for her existence.   It is my way of trying to make right what obviously went wrong during a pregnancy that I thought was fine.   After all, a mother’s first job is to ensure her child’s safety and happiness and I had so desperately wanted that to be true for us, on that day, Fifteen years ago.  It is my way of erasing the scars that are still visible on my daughter’s skin and will forever be etched in my heart and mind.

It has been an interesting year. A transitional year in so many ways. Alexandra entered her first year of high school.  This change has been harder on me than on her. She seems to adjust well and thrive on social skills that took so many years to develop. She will be participating in her first school dance three days after her birthday. To other mothers, this may be just a normal activity during the teen years. For me, however, this is a giant step.  I am almost tempted to contact her NICU nurses and inform them of this event. They will surely share this joy with me. To even imagine that the NICU’s smallest surviving infant and longest resident will be going to a school dance is beyond anyone’s wildest dreams. I will have to quote my sister’s favorite recent saying: “God is so Faithful”.

Our lives have changed to a better and stable existence the past few years. Each new “medically- stable” day brings better promises and a chance for a brighter future. In spite of the still lingering special needs challenges we face daily,  we are now able to participate in more normal activities such as attending full time school, shopping or visiting relatives. It has taken strong faith and many years of therapies, care and love to bring Alexandra to this point. The path was hard, but the outcome is worth it. 

These “medically-stable” years have allowed Alexandra’s funny personality to slowly emerge. She is now given a chance to show her true character and build those habits that are a part of any growing child.  Among her favorite habits is a serious wave that she uses to greet whomever she comes across.  As a matter of fact, her favorite pass time is to make the rounds in school waving a greeting to anyone in sight.  It is truly a delight to watch Alexandra greeting teachers and staff as she wonders about her day. A few years ago, she developed and perfected this wave that has become a big part of who Alex is.  It is this signature wave that has earned her the title of “Home Coming Queen”.

I am blessed to see this wave every day. It brightens my heart when she uses it as I drop her off to school in the morning and when I pick her up at the end of the day. A simple gesture, yet so powerful.  A true Royal wave, for Alexandra has fought and earned this royalty every step of the way. A true Seal-of-Faith wave, for God’s faithfulness has made all this possible..

Happy Fifteenth birthday “Home Coming Queen!”….

©  Copyright 2013 .Najwa S. Hirn. All rights reserved