Invisible Challenges, Hidden Blessings

It has been a VERY challenging month with the promise of even more challenges to come in the very near future!

It has me watching people all around and wondering what their challenges may be...

I work with some of the best kids in the universe! They are not the best because they are so very bright or even very good at school. They are the best because they all have, every one, some invisible challenge in their life- you see, I work with students with learning disabilities. These are not a disability like down syndrome or being wheelchair bound or being blind. They are disabilities that impact the student's cognitive processes in such a way that what most of us can learn or do easily takes my students a great deal of work to do. For example, my student may pay perfect attention in class, take notes the entire lecture, work on his assignment for over an hour- and still fail to complete most of it or to even be able to tell you the topic of the lesson. To his teacher, he appeared to have been staring off into space, writing random words and wasting time during the work time... Perhaps my student has poor processing skills or poor short term memory or one of many other things that make school so frustrating. And the most discouraging and daunting thing? No one can see his challenge, his disability, so no one understands... He is NOT a poor student, rather a student who needs extra support to succeed.

The blessings of working with these students can easily be overlooked- almost hidden. I have developed so much more patience throughout my career and so much understanding and empathy for those around me. I have been blessed to no longer assume that everyone has my own abilities, my own way of thinking. My students each have a unique perspective on the world. And so many of them teach me so very much when I am smart enough to allow them!

The most challenging events of late- and most likely in the foreseeable future- revolve around Luke's health, or lack thereof... He has Chronic Fatigue Syndrome- something that even some professionals do NOT believe is real. But I can tell you that it is very real. Thanks in huge part to Dr. Bateman, Luke is finally getting better! Things are slowly improving, but they are improving!

The challenge is- Luke has to go back to work within the month, better or not. We have been greatly blessed with disability insurance for the last while, but that runs out shortly... Although Luke is greatly improved, he may not be improved enough to be able to commute and work an eight hour day. And if he can pull that off, it will mean him coming home and going right to bed- EVERY DAY- with me doing all of the housework plus packing lunches, preparing breakfast before bed, setting out his clothes and mine... just taking care of everything I possibly can so that Luke will be able to spend the small amount of energy he will have available to work...

Luke's illness has been an invisible challenge for us- invisible to others, that is. But it has brought some blessings- 

I have been able to spend a few minutes chatting with Luke every time I come home from work!

He and I have become closer as we work through the repercussions of a long term illness and all of the challenges both financial and physical that come with that illness.

Our relationship with one another is so much stronger than it would have been without Luke's CFS.  We have had to learn to help one another in every aspect of life!

There are so many blessings all around every day.

I have also been very blessed to pick up extra assignments at work. It is hard to put in an extra 10 hours week after week- but the financial blessings are greatly appreciated.

So although the invisible challenges will not be going away any time soon, I will look for all of the hidden blessings and turn my face towards HOPE for even bigger blessings to come!