I watched my young son grow from infancy to youth all the while expecting he would be normal like average children. My expectations were soon shattered when he started school and the comparisons with other children showed great contrasts. He was different.
He didn’t perform like other children because his brain worked entirely different from others’ brains. It wasn't unil he was eighteen and joined the National Guard that I learned the nature of his difference to others, and by then I had likely made every parenting mistake in the book.
Unable to understand my child, I was unable to accept his idiosyncrasies and spent those early years trying to change him. I might have made him a cripple if not for his intelligence and strength, and I thank God that my son was able to overcome any damage I might have inflicted in my ignorance to try to be a good parent with my expectations of him to be like everyone else.
This poem is about him and for him, and I hope he can forgive me for trying to change him into the mold of what I conceived as normal children.
My Special Love
For nine wonderful months,
I felt you beneath my heart Your soft fluttering movements, Your tiny feet kicking at my abdomen Reminding me of the most precious love I would ever know.
Then that night when you were born, They placed you in my arms And nothing in all my life Ever meant so much to me Or ever would again As your soft little body Lying warmly and snugly Against my chest.
You were different, my son Perhaps we’ll never know why Your ways were unlike other children I knew You were gifted with an IQ called genius, You demonstrated genius through the wonderful Self-taught lessons you exemplified through Electronic inventions you made as a child.
God had not prepared me for you After you became older and merged Into school, society, and among people Where your differences stood out boldly And your thinking was unlike other kids your age. They were thinking of sports and ballgames While you thought of inventions and creating.
You took apart every toy I bought you, Making me believe you were destructive, When in reality, you were collecting parts To build all the wonderful little electronic gadgets Your gifted fingers were able to make In your quest for electronic knowledge That bred a lifetime interest.
Your mind thought and worked through ideas In a whole different way than mine, Communicating with you was Like one traumatic whirlwind after another. We both felt frustration, and sometimes impatience It must have been worse on you To know that life was a strange place Where no one understood you.
Our shared perceptions were limited You neither understood me, nor I you. You grew up in a world you didn’t understand Because you thought you were like everyone else— Or should be, but you found yourself doing things Entirely different from your peers Whom you had trouble relating to.
My brave, wonderful child I am so proud of you today For your maturity, your interest in things, And the gentle prayers you pray. God gave you that high I.Q. for a reason And while you might think differently From those who come into your sphere of life, Your loving heart is, has always been, And always will be filled with love.
I love you, my precious son, with all my heart I will always love you.
A BEAUTIFUL TRIBUTE TO THE 'WONDERFUL GIFT' GOD HAS GIVEN YOU. HE IS INDEED, 'SPECIAL' AND, AS I AM SURE HE WELL KNOWS, SO LOVED AND APPRECIATED BY HIS MOTHER AND I EXPECT, SO MANY OTHERS. THANKS FOR SHARING JEANETTE AND GOD BLESS YOU AND YOURS.
LOVE, JOYCE * HIS INSPIRATIONS
This honest and loving expressive piece touches the soul, Jeanette. Your mother's love shines through your words. Thank you for sharing this gift. Love and best wishes,
"My Special Love" is a heartfelt story that only a mother can know and share. Jeanette's closing lines tell us all what we already know but what needs to be said by every parent to every child, no matter their age: "I love you, my precious son/daughter, with all my heart. I will always love you."
There is another and equally great message that comes with Jeanette's sharing: Every child is unique and special. Many children are born with distinctions. Sometimes those distinctions are perceived by us as making him or her a child of a lesser God, as when a child is born with Down's syndrome or suffering from heroin addiction or born blind or deaf, to name but a few of many distinctions.
Our lesson is to learn that in that instance, God has given us the wonderful opportunity to step forward with unconditional love and compassion and understanding and enduring support.
For every child born into this world, God has an intended purpose. As human parents, we don't need to comprehend all the mechanics and intricacies of His intent. We need simply to thank God for giving that child to us, for giving us the opportunity to open our loving hearts to accept and to care for and to nurture His special messenger.
When we honor God's child given to us, we honor God. And when we live and love with God in our heart, our future is to live in the heart of God, with God and with God's child.
In "My Special Love," Jeanette, you have opened our hearts to meeting great challenges with even greater possibilities. Thank you for sharing this powerful message.
Oh Jeanette you have me in tears reading this tender loving tribute to your son. Your wealth of love and adoration is shining bright and know there is no love as that between mother and child.....
This is such a masterful tribute to your son. He will be brought to tears of joy when he reads this. I commend you for your endurance and fortitude. You are a very strong and amazing woman, Jeanette.
Peace, Love, and Light,
Amber "V"
Jeanette: This is truly heart rendering...I also have a daughter with a high IQ and we've been down the path you've described. Its hard, at a young age, to know what the problem is. We found out through testing at the school she attended. She is a bright and a wonderful person and our relationship is great. She has many of my traits and enjoys lots of the same things I do. I thoroughly enjoy you sharing this with us today. Our children, our life, and once we bond and know the issues the bond is sealed and it is great.
There are so many thoughts racing around in my mind after reading this loving poem for your son. You and he have been blessed in being part of each other's life. There is no book for dealing with gifted children, and our school system doesn't encourage them to excell. Instead, the schools attempt to 'catch-up' the ones who are lagging - which is a good thing, but what about the gifted?
I'm quite sure your son understands and loves you back with all his heart.
different is always scary for a parent, we want so much for our children to 'fit in' when that isn't always the best way to go. your son sounds wonderful
Reviewed by chris stienstra (Reader)
Reviewed on October 2, 2007
The realities and realizations we sometimes discover during this life
can sometimes stop us dead in our tracks.We think,"how could I have missed that?", and then the curtain of blame comes down on act one. We sit and ponder about the things we could have or should have done and the curtain comes down on act two. But, in act three we begin to realize that we did do the BEST we could do. We did not set out to overlook anything. Being human is just that....being human. What a wonderful gift your son has been given. The gift of creativity and invention. Wow, what a life of discovery he is going to have, and, at some point, he will not stick out as different, he will stick out as a leader of thought and innovative devices he has built. I can tell you are proud of him, and, I sense he knows that you are.
My very best to you this day.
Chris
My brave, wonderful child
I am so proud of you today
A truly wonderful and heartfelt ode to your son, Jeanette, as only a very loving mother could pen, and it's wonderful to hear that you and he now understand each other so well.
Reviewed by Jerry Bolton (Reader)
Reviewed on October 2, 2007
We are programmed to see the obvious, but not the difference in the obvious . . . That your son was a step above his peers in intelligence and wasn't mature enough to understand why, it is no wonder you were caught up in the quest to "change" him into what you thought he shold be like . . . I'm grateful you found out, althoug by eighteen that might have almost been too late . . . But it seems not to be . . .
The familiar lament of dual-career parents raising children is, "I just can't do it all." The Libra Solution provides an alternative - a more satisfying and sustainable work and life approach - to the overwrought modern day norm.
Let this coming of age story of a boy named Bean take you back to a simple time. Set in a small southern town in the 1960's, encircled by a river and gleaming white cotton fields.
The familiar lament of dual-career parents raising children is, "I just can't do it all." The Libra Solution provides an alternative - a more satisfying and sustainable work and life approach - to the overwrought modern day norm.
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LOVE, JOYCE * HIS INSPIRATIONS
Regis
There is another and equally great message that comes with Jeanette's sharing: Every child is unique and special. Many children are born with distinctions. Sometimes those distinctions are perceived by us as making him or her a child of a lesser God, as when a child is born with Down's syndrome or suffering from heroin addiction or born blind or deaf, to name but a few of many distinctions.
Our lesson is to learn that in that instance, God has given us the wonderful opportunity to step forward with unconditional love and compassion and understanding and enduring support.
For every child born into this world, God has an intended purpose. As human parents, we don't need to comprehend all the mechanics and intricacies of His intent. We need simply to thank God for giving that child to us, for giving us the opportunity to open our loving hearts to accept and to care for and to nurture His special messenger.
When we honor God's child given to us, we honor God. And when we live and love with God in our heart, our future is to live in the heart of God, with God and with God's child.
In "My Special Love," Jeanette, you have opened our hearts to meeting great challenges with even greater possibilities. Thank you for sharing this powerful message.
Richard
Be safe,
Karen
Peace, Love, and Light,
Amber "V"
I'm quite sure your son understands and loves you back with all his heart.
Kathy
can sometimes stop us dead in our tracks.We think,"how could I have missed that?", and then the curtain of blame comes down on act one. We sit and ponder about the things we could have or should have done and the curtain comes down on act two. But, in act three we begin to realize that we did do the BEST we could do. We did not set out to overlook anything. Being human is just that....being human. What a wonderful gift your son has been given. The gift of creativity and invention. Wow, what a life of discovery he is going to have, and, at some point, he will not stick out as different, he will stick out as a leader of thought and innovative devices he has built. I can tell you are proud of him, and, I sense he knows that you are.
My very best to you this day.
Chris
I am so proud of you today
A truly wonderful and heartfelt ode to your son, Jeanette, as only a very loving mother could pen, and it's wonderful to hear that you and he now understand each other so well.
This. Is. BEAUTIFUL. What more can be said that you haven't already said? Well done.
(((HUGS))) and love to you and your son, Karla.
(((HUGS))) and much love, your friend in Tx., Karen Lynn. :D