I shall overcome...

I watched this child, who suffers from hearing impairment, partial visual insufficiency, increased muscle tone and convulsions, making efforts to move about in four limbs and reach out to toys to explore. 

She uses her sense of touch, smell and taste to explore her environment. She associates the informations she gathers to make social relationships. She touched me and stayed close to me for a while at the first time she visited me. When she came the second time after three weeks, she greeted me with a sense of familiarity. At home she is able to function almost independently with minimal help. She goes to a special school and integrates into the class room  activity. At seven years of age, she has come to accept her limitations, but is still making efforts to walk, talk and use her residual abilities with determination. 

Her parents told me that, she enjoys playing with her sister and both of them help the mother in cooking. She is keen to take out the vegetables from the refrigerator, wash them and stay in the kitchen to  have conversations with her mother. Her strong sense of smell is to her advantage. She takes care of their dog by feeding, brushing and bathing her. She does all of them easily and dextrously. She lives relationally at home and welcomes visitors by greeting them spontaneously. Her parents find her well adjusted to all situations, while travelling and visiting new places or at the hospital where she gets admitted often for treatment for her convulsions.

Her story is one of overcoming. Her story is a repeat story of Rev.Dr.Martin Luther King, who led the civil rights movement singing the famous inspirational song, 'we shall overcome one day..'

Anna and I receive her story as an inspiration to begin the new year with hope and anticipation. There resides in each of us a call to transform our circumstances. This journey from complaining to overcoming is possible when we can view our difficulties as opportunities. Paul and Silas while being in the prison, used their time to sing and praise God.  

There is another way to live and go through life.  Let our lives lead others to discover this another way in the new year! We send you our good wishes for this year to be blessing in our lives.

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)