coltsmom414
Registered: January 2008
Posts: 1,437
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January 25, 2008
A Legacy of Love
Created for the Faith Discovery Challenge (#3 Your Family Legacy) at Faith Sisters (www.faithsisters.com)
This is a photo of my Dad and Chris, one of the severely handicapped kids he taught. Chris passed away a few years after this photo was taken.
Journaling Reads:
My Dad has always had a special way with kids. Kids are just drawn to him like flies to honey. I saw it growing up…all my friends loved my Dad. I saw it when he was the manager of our local grocery store. He had a way with all those teenagers he hired. He was the cool Dad that everyone wants. I saw it in the special way my Dad dealt with kids with special needs. He hired several Down Syndrome and special needs teenagers to work at the grocery store. He showed them so much patience and had a genuine love for them. While other people shied away from them, he embraced them. So, it didn’t surprise me in the least when my Dad announced that he was going back to collage to become a special ed. teacher. Here was a man who decided to change his whole career mid-life. After he got his degree, he worked in several settings, starting off working with elementary age kids. After several years working at that age level, he was offered a position as the teacher for the severely handicapped kids at the high school. These were kids who were in wheel chairs (totally incompasited) and kids who could not take care of their basic needs on their own. He loved those kids and often had stories to tell us of their achievements, as well as their setbacks. Dad loved these kids. When one of them was ill or hospitalized, he was right there praying for them and doing whatever he could for their families. Seeing my Dad with these kids instilled in me a love for them. So many people look at them like freaks or inconveniences. Dad taught me that they are sweet and innocent. That they have wants and needs. That like us, they feel when they are loved or ridiculed. This is one of the instances where Dad exemplified Christ to me. Christ called us to love one another and my Dad showed that everyday that he taught in that classroom. He has given me the perfect example of agape love…love in action. He has our family a legacy of love for generations to come.
Kit is Beauty Within by Nikki Painter
Stitching from the Clash kit by Tiffany Brady
Fonts are CK Stylish, CK Renaissance, CK Keystroke and Arial Narrow
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