Specials

My children love to watch a certain movie:  The Incredibles.  They marvel at the superheroes and pretend we are the Parr family, attempting to live regular lives in the middle of having to overcome supervillain antics and other adversities.  They say we are a family of specials!  Benjamin wants to be Dash, running on water.  Nyssa is Violet, who invisibly works behind the scenes, and Nathaniel is Mr. Incredible, strong beyond reason and indestructible.

I'd like to introduce our family to you, beginning with the most loving patriarch I have ever known.  Richard is an ubergenius when it comes to mathematics and computers.  He is the logical problem solver with a heart of gold.  He senses when things are not quite right and does his best to make everything better.  He carries the weight of the family and holds us up under circumstances that would crush others.

Then there is me.  It's mind-boggling to think that we have been married 7 1/2 years now.  I spent most of the first 4 year pregnant.  I had 4 children born in the span of 5 years and 2 months.  I have the literal stretch marks to prove it.  Some days, though, I find myself stretched beyond my limits and yet being stretched further, amazingly, without snapping in two.

Nyssa is precociously intellectual.  She loves people, but doesn't always know the right way to interact with them.  She is socially immature but a genius at getting her siblings to do something while she sits invisibly on the sidelines.  When they get caught, she is nowhere around and yet we know she manages to pull the strings without being seen.

Nathaniel seems to be somewhat like Frozone.  He can appear cold as ice, but inside he's all mush.  He gets frustrated easily when he is not able to communicate with us effectively.  He gets angry and pouts when he doesn't understand what we are trying to say to him.  The Autism causes a barrier of sorts that he is unable to break.  But we work on going around it instead of tearing it down.

Benjamin is our blonde, green-eyed wonder.  He wants to be free to have fun without responsibilities.  He likes to wander around at night when he thinks we can't see him and hide behind the chair and just listen to us.  He is four years old and likes everything to be in its proper place before he goes to bed or else he can't sleep.

Gabriela is our own version of baby Jack Jack.  She can keep up with all of us and can get into things so quickly it's like she's able to teleport from one spot to another.  She'll be beside me one minute in the kitchen and the next she's upstairs in the boy's room chewing on a toy.

The thing is, most of our children have special needs.  They have Autistic mannerisms that make them stick out like a sore thumb at times, but yet they are also full of wonder and so much love.  Yes, they have special needs, but I think every one does in one shape or another.  Theirs are just more obvious than the average Joe's. 

I think Helen Parr said it best when she was talking to Dash, though in a way she may not have originally intended.  She said, "everyone's special."  Dash took it as to mean that "that means nobody is."  But that's not exactly true, because we all have our strengths.  We all have our weaknesses.  We all have those special aspects about us that make us unique, whether it is flapping our hands, repeating movie lines as our means of communications, or just being a great giver or being a huggy person.  All these things are special about us.  We all have special needs, but we are also all very, very special.