Jennifer’s story – ‘Many parents with children our age kept their kids away from us’
My parents married later on in life, and were told that they couldn’t have children after my mother had been a midwife for over 25 years it came as quite a shock. They were thrilled when they began to start having children and were blessed with 5 children in 8 years! When the youngest was born, my mother noticed that there was something wrong, he didn’t make eye contact with her and it wasn’t long before he started to have fits. My little brother was diagnosed with Epilepsy and spent the first year of his life in hospital. During this time, one of my siblings had a serious seizure and we were all tested and found to have epilepsy. As I’m sure you can imagine this was a very difficult time for my family and we were blessed with neighbours and a couple of people from the church who would baby sit us while dad was at work. And for this I know that my whole family is incredibly grateful. Sadly though, alongside this there was a void of ignorance within our church family. Many parents with children our age kept their kids away from us because they said they did not want to expose their children to our condition. Even as a child this left a lasting impression on me and sadly even as our family adapted and got through this difficult period in our life, the hostile regard for my family in the church remained. This really reared its head as my youngest brother was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome. For a long time my youngest brother was asked not to attend the children’s group along with the other children until my mum began to volunteer and eventually run the children’s work in the church. There is no doubt about it, if there was a clear message from the leadership of the church and inclusion was championed then my understanding of church in childhood would have been significantly different. There was certainly no experience or education provided by the church.
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