To Those Who Cannot Say, “I Wouldn’t Have Them Any Other Way.” (Rebroadcast)

I am definitely one of them. Hearing other parents of children with disabilities say adages like this one has always made me squirm inside because it’s simply untrue to me. I would have Kimball another way—free from pain and suffering. But I’ve realized a trend—the parents saying this phrase were almost always parents to children with disabilities that do not cause pain or suffering in and of themselves. And are certainly not life-shortening. In this solo episode, I divide out disabilities and medical issues into those two categories—ones that cause suffering and the ones that do not. And I suggest that we accept that we will probably always hate those in the first category (because what parent loves something that causes their child pain) and move towards acceptance and love for those disabilities in the latter group. I also acknowledge that the sadness or pain we have over any of these disabilities or medical issues always stems from the love we have for our children. *This is a rebroadcast of one of my favorite episodes of The Rare Life for you to listen to while we work on production for season 8, coming in August! If you’d like to discuss this episode with other members of The Rare Life community, we’ll be holding two different meetings run by our amazing group facilitators every Tuesday at 8pm in PST &CST. Fill out our contact form to get the Skype link each week!* Links: Sign up to get an invitation for our community discussions every Tuesday during the off-season! Support your mental health and this podcast by checking out our sponsor BetterHelp for licensed online counseling. Solo episode about Wendy and our huge struggle together. Ep. 13: Feeding Tube Adventures. Follow Madeline on Instagram. Join the Facebook group Parents of Children with Rare Conditions. Donate to the podcast via Buy Me a Coffee. Contact me about sponsoring the podcast. Follow the Facebook page. Access the transcript on the website here. And if you love this podcast, please leave us a rating or review in your favorite podcast app!