The American Thanksgiving with a Child who has Special Needs

Posted by Claire Smyth on 27th November 2014 Additional Needs, Advice & Support, Disabilities

The American Thanksgiving with a Child who has Special Needs

Thanksgiving in America is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November and was designated to be a time of giving thanks for the blessing of the harvest and of the preceding year.

It became an official Federal holiday in 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day of “Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.”

American school children are taught about Thanksgiving’s roots in 1621 when Pilgrims had large harvest with an abundance of food.

To celebrate, they held a huge feast and invited a group of Native Americans who had helped them get through that first difficult year, an event that lasted three days.

However regardless of history, Thanksgiving is about the concept of setting aside time to give thanks for one’s blessings.

Sometimes that concept can get lost.

Like many traditional holidays commercialization and the hustle and bustle often times leaves a lack of time to be grateful and thankful for all the really important things in our lives.

You’ll find that a family with special needs never fails to recognize the significance of being so very thankful for all of our blessings.

We find ourselves giving thanks for the smallest things in our lives:

A day of good health for our child

No seizures

One smile

A hug

The sound of laughter

We also give thanks for the our special needs community who surrounds us with unconditional love and support.

We know the significance of the meaning behind it takes a village to raise a child who has special needs.

We remain thankful for family, friends, therapists, caregivers, and physicians who are a part of our child’s daily team.

While often times our Thanksgiving may be a bit different from other families as we work hard to balance sensory challenges and daily care while tending to cooking a Turkey, mashing potatoes and baking pies, we never skip a moment to take a deep breath and to be truly thankful for all that really matters which at the very depths of all our blessings is the gift of life that she share with our child who has special needs.

You can catch up with Stacy at Noah’s Miracle.