"Mrs Hatton, your son will be fine... blind!"
Life as I’d known it was gone! Things were happening so fast and decisions were being made instantly, that I didn’t even have time to RESPOND! ...EMOTIONS held HOSTAGE!
But God... who is RICH in MERCY... would not allow more than I could bear!
I recall slowly falling to the floor, but my knees never hit the floor! Slipping to the floor at the side of his hospital bed, something was leaving me, yet something else refused to let me utterly FALL! Holding on AND letting go... I felt weak and strong at the same time! I decided to live long enough to SEE how this story would unfold! I’m certainly grateful that I did!
Kevin will be 33 years old this year! ... his doctor was right! He’s living a FULL life, has a massage therapy certification, writes, performs, & produces his own music, comes and goes when he wants to, cooks, cleans, and loves Gods word!! Thank you Father for being RICH in MERCY!!
The National Federation of the Blind taught us that blindness is not a characteristic that defines you or your future, it's a simple inconvenience! They were set up and ready to support parents in raising and having the SAME expectations for their blind child as they would their sighted children! As a person with VISION/AN ATTRACTIVE
THINKER, that's all I needed to know! I stuck with them, learned all that I could, and kept applying that information! Learning and transferring... learning and transferring!
We had to do it differently! I’d taught him how to read letters in prep for Pre-Kindergarten and now I had 30 days to learn Braille MYSELF in order to teach it to him before he started Kindergarten! I searched for blind resources, found an organization that serviced blind people, drove up to the door, went to the front desk and said, “My son just lost his sight, school starts in 30 days and I know nothing about Braille!” She got up, walked
into her office and took a huge Braille instructional manual off of her shelf and said, “I’m not supposed to give this to you, but read it through and through and he’ll be ready for kindergarten!”
I took the book home and studied it like the Bible! ... day and night, wiping tears before they hit the manual! “Dang! I can’t do this! Jesus, Lord why?! How am I going to learn to read these bumps on this paper?!” I felt like I had to fluently learn another language in 30 days! Learning Braille really was like learning a new language, but I was determined! Kevin knew how to read letters in time for Pre-K and he was going to know how to
read Braille in time for kindergarten!
The Spirit was just leading and guiding and opening doors and I was just leaning and trusting! I learned the Braille alphabet, took all of the index cards around the house that had words on them with letters and created index cards that had words in Braille. refrigerator... r e f r i g e r a t o r “Can you feel it Kevin? What letter is that? What does that word say?” I took Braille to church and we’d talk to each other using Braille while sitting in bible study! We were talking with our
hands! Whooooo God! We were learning how to do life differently!!
, are you feeling backed against the wall?!
Circumstances come with OPEN DOORS, we just have to be willing to let everything we’ve known go, so we can learn everything anew!!! Change means change... your walk, your talk, your habits, your circle, your beliefs, and your faith! It has to be ELEVATED to accommodate the next level!
For my birthday this month, I'm donating to The National Federation of the Blind to continue to support blind children around the world in removing the challenges to their dreams!
The picture below is one of many in which Kevin at 4 years old/Pre-Kindergarten had to take chemotherapy treatments after school! It took alot for him to recover in time for school the next day, but he was a real trooper!
~Keep Believing, Attractively!
Attractive Thinker...