GRANDPARENTS

We are grandparents blessed with two beautiful and much loved grandchildren, Angelica a loving and adorable little girl of 4 ½ and Jarod a very special little boy of 2 ½. Jarod has Cerebral Palsy and Epilepsy and this makes him a very special grandchild to his Nan and Pa.  Only grandparents really know the love and adoration one feels toward one's grandchildren and when one of them is born with disabilities there grows a special bond toward them.

When we first learned of Jarod's problems our first feelings were of anger, angry with God  for allowing this to happen to our  first grandson.   Angry at the Doctors for allowing him to be born this way and blaming them, for his problems.  Angry at the Doctors for not being able to cure him.  We also felt envy, Envious of every "Normal" little boy we saw and secretly wished that our Jarod was like one of them.  We also felt fear - fear that his mother and father would be unable to cope with a child with disabilities and fear of the future for our grandson.

The feelings of anger have now passed and although we sometimes feel envy and sometimes even a little fear, today we realize what a special gift we have in Jarod.  He is loving, alert, happy most of the time, pleased to see us every time, a joy and delight to be with and his laughter  fills our hearts with happiness.  True he has his off-days, true he cant yet walk or talk yet but our  hopes and prayers are that one day he will surprise us and be able to walk and talk with us.

Finally we are thankful that Jarod is our grandson, that his disabilities are not as severe as some and he can relate to us, interact with us and return our affections and we wouldn't swap him for any other little boy, he is our grandchild, he is special and we love him very much.

Click on one of the following links to read about these children and their families.

Jarod's Story A 3 year old with epilepsy, cerebral palsy and global developmental delay.

Samuel now 2 has a vision impairment and associated delays.

Georga has started kindy now. She was a floppy baby at birth and has recently started having seizures.

Matthew is 3 and enjoys life. His development has improved incredibly since the early days.

Izabella has dispraxia. Find out her parents worries, fears and hopes.

A grandparent shares his wishes, joys and fears with respect to his disabled grandson.