I'll TAKE CEREBRAL PALSY, PLEASE

 

I didn't choose to have cerebral palsy.

 It's not as though before I was born God said to me, "I am giving you a disability. That may sound bad. The good news is you get to choose the disability I give you." 

Then God pulled out His Menu of Disabilities. (Writing this is making me laugh. I ask for your indulgence.). He began to read my choices to me. When I heard him say spastic cerebral palsy. I didn't squeal with joy. I didn't say, "Oooh, that disability sounds cool. I'll take cerebral palsy, please. What's that? Spastic quadriplegia is the most severe diagnosis of CP?. Cool. Sign me up. I am up for the chalenge."  

If God gave me this gift because I needed to learn a lesson I wish he would give me a hint about what that lesson is. A hint about what my purpose is. 

If I was chosen to be given CP because God was confident that I'd be able to handle it  God had more faith in me than I deserve. There are days when everyone with CP is taking it much better than I am. Of this I am sure.

It would be awesome if there was a CP handbook titled Congratulations. You Have Cerebral Palsy. (A Guide For A Happy And Productive Life)  This handbook would begin when a child was diagnosed with CP and end with a chapter on aging and CP. ( I read on the internet that individuals with CP only lived to the age of forty-five. I'd like to meet the idiot who came up with that statistic.)

Chapter titles might include:

Wheelchairs, walkers, and doctors oh my!

There will be stairs and stares

Why special schools/classes aren't special

Date me. I am a fun spaz

College = freedom

Hi, I'm your new staff member it's time for your shower.

Look out world. Here I come

It's not you.  Society is the problem

Not a member of the wedding

Who says elderly CPers aren't cool?

This handbook would serve as a humorous reminder to parents, children, and adults with CP that they are not alone. Whatever challenges they are facing someone else is facing those same challenges.

I didn't choose to have CP. I  often wonder what my life would have been like without it.

 Cerebral palsy taught me to be compassionate, to understand empathy, and to believe that we all contribute, no matter how severe our disability is. We matter.

I got my answer.