{"id":2164,"date":"2011-11-16T20:36:47","date_gmt":"2011-11-17T01:36:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/?p=2164"},"modified":"2011-11-19T21:00:43","modified_gmt":"2011-11-20T02:00:43","slug":"expecting-two-babies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/11\/expecting-two-babies.html","title":{"rendered":"Expecting two babies"},"content":{"rendered":"

My sister, Ferne, has three great-grandchildren.\u00a0 They are the offspring of her two granddaughters.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I am looking forward to a visit from two of the babies and their mother this next week.\u00a0 Several months ago, my husband and I had a visit from all three of the babies. \u00a0While anticipating the visit, a\u00a0friend of mine\u00a0teased,\u00a0 “I can’t believe that you’re going to have three babies in your house.\u00a0 It’s going to be a hard week.”<\/p>\n

I agreed with a tone of sarcasm.\u00a0 “Yep, it’ll be hard.\u00a0 There are only three babies and there’ll be five of us adults fighting over who gets to hold them.\u00a0 But I think the mothers will be tired, and they’ll allow the other three adults to spoil them a bit.”<\/p>\n

In the church, I’ve\u00a0never understood adults who seem to lose their ability to enjoy babies, children or teenagers.\u00a0 Sure,\u00a0these adolescents aren’t adults but that’s what makes them such a joy to be around.<\/p>\n

There are many things that I love about working with people who are intellectually disabled.\u00a0 Perhaps one of\u00a0the best is that they have an attitude of youthful exuberance.\u00a0 Being with them\u00a0keeps my attitude young in much the same\u00a0way babies and\u00a0children do.<\/p>\n

Now, I didn’t say the mentally challenged community remains children all their lives.\u00a0 I remember when that was the prevalent view.\u00a0\u00a0These are God’s special people because they\u00a0are forever children.<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0This simply is not true.\u00a0 People who are mentally challenged have all the expectation and aspiration of any other adult.\u00a0 However, they express things differently.\u00a0 For one thing, they never seem to hide their insecurities.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Laura carries a baby doll wherever she goes, giving the impression of childish emotions and values.\u00a0 Yet, she is well spoken and easily understands\u00a0complicated concepts.\u00a0 Because she is\u00a0blind, the feel of this familiar\u00a0object that she\u00a0has\u00a0carried for years, gives her a great deal of comfort and support.<\/p>\n

Laura reminds me of Brian a professional man whose wife confided\u00a0to me.\u00a0 “Whenever Brian travels, he carries his\u00a0old worn-out terry bear.\u00a0 I’ve tried to convince him to leave it home but he says it gives him comfort because he’s had it for years.”\u00a0 Brian is sly enough to hide his favorite bear.\u00a0\u00a0Laura\u00a0will never be that complicated in her\u00a0actions.<\/p>\n

They don’t comprehend that awkwardness is unbecoming in adult society.\u00a0 I remember struggling to hide habits that had become a part of my nature, as I reached the post-teenage years.\u00a0 I had been raised in the South and we were taught to say, “Yes, mam” to anyone older than ourselves.\u00a0 After reaching my twenties when I was at a party for the first time with many adults and I said, “yes, mam. ”\u00a0 I was sternly rebuked.\u00a0 I didn’t make that mistake again.<\/p>\n

Carolyn dresses with sophistication.\u00a0 When she emerges from her house, you would think that her image could grace any magazine cover.\u00a0\u00a0 That is, until she childishly giggles, putting her hands over her face in an awkward way that reveals her lack of self-consciousness.<\/p>\n

As we become more mature, we learn to shed devotion to people who don’t return our affection.\u00a0 But some people in the mentally challenged community never got that memo.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Tom has loved Eileen for years, but she doesn’t return his affection.\u00a0 Rather than giving up, Tom continues to embrace the possibility that Eileen will one day favor him\u00a0over the men who pursue her with little sense of devotion or commitment.<\/p>\n

It is interesting that we live in a society that is\u00a0\u00a0frantically racing after youth.\u00a0 At the same time we reject everything that whispers a youthful attitude or mannerism.\u00a0\u00a0It is a great blessing to be able to work and play, pray and worship with a group of people\u00a0who don’t seem to get the nuances of adulthood.\u00a0 Jesus said that unless we become child-like we will never see the kingdom of heaven.<\/p>\n

Hiding our icons of insecurity,\u00a0 adopting accepted norms, and shedding unuseful affectations are only three ways that people who are developmentally disabled are able to teach me the importance a child-like attitude.<\/p>\n

What are some things that you have seen that impress you about the\u00a0child-like attitude when you meet a new friend? \u00a0Who is one friend that you admire because she refuses to “act her age”?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My sister, Ferne, has three great-grandchildren.\u00a0 They are the offspring of her two granddaughters. I am looking forward to a visit from two of the babies and their mother this next week.\u00a0 Several months ago, my husband and I had a visit from all three of the babies. \u00a0While anticipating the visit, a\u00a0friend of mine\u00a0teased,\u00a0…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":387,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[182,40,186,49,16,8],"tags":[690,21,688,7,699,715,701,694,6,700],"class_list":["post-2164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-disability","category-faith","category-hope","category-inspiration","category-intellectual-disability","category-mentally-challenged-community","tag-autism-spectrum","tag-christian","tag-christianity","tag-developmental-disabilities-2","tag-faith","tag-hope","tag-inspiration","tag-intellectual-disability","tag-simple-scriptural-truths","tag-spirituality"],"yoast_head":"\nExpecting two babies - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/11\/expecting-two-babies.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Expecting two babies - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"My sister, Ferne, has three great-grandchildren.\u00a0 They are the offspring of her two granddaughters. I am looking forward to a visit from two of the babies and their mother this next week.\u00a0 Several months ago, my husband and I had a visit from all three of the babies. \u00a0While anticipating the visit, a\u00a0friend of mine\u00a0teased,\u00a0…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/11\/expecting-two-babies.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-11-17T01:36:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-11-20T02:00:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2011\/11\/three-great-grands-150x150.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Linda G. Howard\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Expecting two babies - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/11\/expecting-two-babies.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Expecting two babies - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","og_description":"My sister, Ferne, has three great-grandchildren.\u00a0 They are the offspring of her two granddaughters. 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