There are so many things to learn In parenthood. It is a never ending educational process. My husband and I are both high school graduates and I have a Bachelors degree, yet we agree that our 24 year parenting experience has taught us more than any formal education ever could– growing, connecting, communicating, building trust, meeting needs which vary from child to child.

Emotional, physical, mental and spiritual needs can be so overwhelming for any dedicated mom or dad that takes on the responsibility of training them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

It’s impossible to succeed with ANY of it without God’s help. That’s why I’m so thankful that our family knows the truth– that having a close walk with God is the most essential ingredient to being a good parent.

Cover that child in prayer, saturate them with the Word of God, starting when they are in the womb!

We have a blended family of 5 children and of course they each have a different temperament and learning style. Throw in some special needs and delays with 3 of them, and you have challenges ALL OVER THE PLACE.

Emily is our youngest. She was born with Down Syndrome which comes with extra learning challenges.

In having low muscle tone, she didn’t take her first unassisted steps until she was 2 1/2 years old!

Her only form of communication was crying, laughing, grunting and using her MANY facial expressions until she was 2 years old. Then she used sign language for the next 2 years until she began learning to talk around age 4.

We have discovered that the more difficult something is to learn, the sweeter the celebration of victory can be!

She turned 8 in November and we were blessed with early intervention therapies to help her and us learn how to communicate and meet needs. By age 4 1/2 she had only 7 words, so we were diligent in teaching her and everyone in the family how to use sign language.

Her speech therapist visited our home twice a month between the ages of 6 months and 3 years old. She brought books and videos to help us all learn how to understand Emily and how to speak to this precious girl, this gift from God, this miracle baby and heart warrior. We had the best time with it!

We laughed a lot when we would confuse common signs and accidently interpret it all wrong. For a few months we were trying to sign “changing your diaper” but it was looking a lot more like “hamburger.” A family joke even today.

Emily always loved music and still does. After watching us sign words to her for a year, she finally learned to sign some back when she was almost 2 years old. Oh glorious day!!

Sunday School songs have always played a LOT at our house. I guess she was around 3 years old when we had a mountain of CDs and she started showing preferences to certain songs. Aha! Incentives for Emily to sign to us!

She was in her high chair 4 or 5 times a day with tube feeding, so we played music to keep her happy. I learned how to sign many words of the songs too. She watched for months and would express joy during it all but she was 2 years old before she learned how to sign along with me.

I’ll never forget the exciting day when she was able to sign to me which song she wanted. Then she signed “again” which took BOTH HANDS!

The song was “Alive Forever More,” a catchy little tune by the Cedarmont Kids rejoicing in the fact that “my Jesus is alive, alive forever more.”

It may not have been a springtime day, but we had an Easter celebration in our family that afternoon. The pride in her eyes, the joy in our hearts and the laughter and cheers from her big brothers rang through our house! We all joined in singing with our hands and mouths again and again a sweet, simple song about Jesus being alive forever more. Hallelujah!

What a blessing it is to be able to teach all of my children the truth of God’s Word! Of course when she learned to talk she began reciting Scriptures and singing Bible songs. She even does it in front of Church if the crowd isn’t too big and a microphone is available.

The medical issues and delays might get in the way here and there, and they definitely slow things down at times. I’m happy to say that it hasn’t stopped us yet and with God’s mercy and help we plan to keep using these stumbling blocks as stepping stones and continue teaching her and all of our children about God and His Word.