Megan's Story: Triumph Over Disabilities

Megan is my twelve year old daughter. Her journey to find her niche in this world has been a long and difficult one. Her brother, now a high school senior, was active in baseball and now plays in his high school band. He has managed to develop his musical and leadership talents to the point of landing a position on his High School Band's Leadership Team. Megan's sister is talented in several areas as well. She is a straight A honor student who manages to play soccer for her High School and a Select Travel Team. She ran Cross Country for two years and only gave that up because two many meets overlapped with soccer and we could not be in two different parts of the state at the same time. Now, she has been elected to fill a spot on her High School Student Council.

Life for Megan did not come so easy for her. Megan began her academic journey with a severe speech impairment. Her teachers and classmates could hardly understand her. I remember her preschool teacher bringing her down the hallway to my classroom many times so that I could interpret for her. I was heartbroken for her. Heartbroken and helpless - a mother's deepest valley concerning her child. I began taking her to speech therapy when she reached the age of three. Her progress was slow, but progress was being made, or so the speech therapist would assure me. She began Kindergarten not much better off than she had been in Preschool. I knew how cruel children could be. I love them dearly but I have raised three of them and have worked with them for over twenty years. I worried about how Megan would be treated. It never bothered Megan as much as it bothered me. My fears lessened a bit when she came home one day with a story about how all the other kids thought she was so smart.

"Mom," she said, "I can speak Spanish. I know that because all the other kids say they hear me speaking it all the time."

Megan could not speak Spanish, but it was fine with me if she and all the other kids thought she was a very intelligent, bilingual Kindergartener.

My fears deepened when I heard other teachers in the hallways, lunchrooms, and other areas of the school when they didn't know I could hear them. I would hear things like, "I cannot understand a thing Megan says. I don't know what to do with her."

As a teacher, I understood their frustrations. I, too, had taught students who challenged my patience and I had many times thought the same thing. Sometimes I would think, "I just don't know what to do with that child." But this was MY child, my baby, my pride and joy. She was my daughter and she was perfect. She just couldn't communicate well. My heart continued to break for her and I longed for the day when we could carry on a normal conversation without difficulty. The reality was that even I could not understand her at times. The only time she seemed to be discouraged was when I, her own mother, could not understand what she was saying. This went on for several years. Second grade was better and we began to see marked improvement in Megan's ability to communicate. Third grade was a charm. She had a teacher who ended up with several children who had speech difficulties and all of them had been going to speech therapy several times a week for the past few years. She found a program, of which I cannot at this moment remember the name of it, which she began to implement in her classroom. By the end of the year, Megan no longer needed speech therapy services at school. Her fourth and fifth grade years were good. I had her tested for learning disabilities when she reached fourth grade. We were presented with a borderline score that indicated a slight processing disorder which coupled with her previous speech impairment had contributed to additional struggles in language arts. Her communication skills were incredible - very normal by this time. By fifth grade, she was making public speeches in her 4-H program and winning awards. I remember crying oceans of tears after that first speech. I was a sight. There I sat in a room full of quiet, attentive parents and I was sobbing. They had no idea why I was crying because Megan's speech left them with no indication that she had overcome so many obstacles in speech development and communication skills. Her speech topic: "My Family"

By the time Megan reached Middle School, she was speaking clearly, making speeches, and was receiving straight A marks on her report cards. Her speech impairment had left her with reading deficits which had been the only hindrance to her self esteem. Now, that was all history.

Megan's Athletic Endeavors

Megan had also struggled in the athletic department. She had tried ballet. She had tried soccer - twice. She played softball for awhile and was pretty good at it. I was surprised a how tough she had appeared at times. Her problem with athletics: She didn't like to run. She decided that the commitment to sports teams was interfering with her social life. She would rather go to her friend's birthday parties and hang out with them than be required to attend all those practices. In her words, "I don't like to run." and referring to softball, "This is interfering with my social life."

Megan, The Pianist

Shortly after she ended her softball career, I began to hear her playing around on our piano. I thought I could detect some musical talent so I signed her up for piano which she was happy to do because she had began to enjoy the piano in our living room and she can take piano for only one hour a week and you can do it sitting down. She took to it beautifully. I absolutely love to hear her play. I knew at that we had discovered a key to Megan's success and self confidence. Come to think of it, I am certain that Megan's music contributed probably more than anything else to her progress in academics.

More recently, Megan decided that she wanted to develop her art skills. Typically, children with disabilities tend to excel in other areas. Megan's areas of achievement had been in music and art. As a preschooler, Megan had been able to finger paint and paint with water colors that showed early talent in those areas. Her artistic abilities did not go unnoticed, but we were a busy family and our concerns had been so concentrated in Megan's speech and academic progress. We had allowed sports because our family had been so involved in sporting events and I had felt that allowing Megan to participate in sports would boost her confidence. We simply had not made art a priority. Now, she wanted to do something with those skills. Megan had met a new friend at the new church where we had been worshiping who attended art lessons every Friday in the home of a local woman. The rate was good so I decided to let her try it.

Megan went to her first art lesson and came home with the beginnings of her first painting.  The painting was not finished so I did not think much about it at the time.  I was impressed with what I saw, but I had no idea what the end result would be so I commented positively about her work and waited another week to see what she would do with it.  The next Friday came and Megan went off with her friend to finish her childhood masterpiece.  Three hours later, she arrived with her first finished painting.  I was astonished!  I looked at it, stared at it, looked at it again, and stared at it again.  Could she have painted this in a total of six hours?  I was overwhelmed with pride in her work.  The next morning, I received a call from Megan's friend's mom who had already heard about the painting from her daughter and the art teacher.  She wanted me to bring it to church on the following Sunday for her to see.  Megan had painted a beautiful ocean scene with a mountainous background and a touch of spring flowers along the beach.  I could not wait to show it off.

Megan's art teacher had suggested that we find pictures or take photographs for Megan to paint.  Megan was eager to get started.  A bird landed on our back deck the following week and just sat there as if posing for his portrait.  Megan quickly grabbed my camera and very carefully snapped the photo.  Away went the bird, but his image is captured forever in Megan's work.  She took the photograph to art class the next week, added a touch of yellow and a tree in the background and another masterpiece from my twelve year old was created.  Thus far, this one seems to be everyone's favorite.  I had the image printed on a cherrywood gift box for a Mother's Day gift for Megan's grandmothers.  I have also placed prints into little frames that resemble rugged country bird houses which are currently up for auction.  Proceeds from the sale of Megan's artwork will be used to fund her future art classes.  She is eager to further develop her skills.

Megan's third painting is painted on top of a trinket/gift box which is oval in shape.  Megan seems to love scenery involving mountains and water.  This painting illustrates a slowly flowing river or lake with a mountainous background lined by colorful foliage on one side and grass adorned with springtime flowers on the other side. All three of Megan's paintings were accomplished within approximately eighteen hours of art class time. 

Megan's artwork demonstrates her character.  Megan has always worked hard with a determination and a will to overcome and succeed.  She overcame speech, language, communication skill deficits, and a learning disability to become a speech maker and a straight A student.  She overcame her discouraging journey to find an extracurricular activity that suited her by becoming a young little pianist. She overcame it all and added an artistic bonus to her life's endeavors. 

Megan's life during her first twelve years demonstrates strength and quality of character that is mimicked by so few since the beginning of time and she, along with her parents, gives all the glory for her accomplishments to our Lord. 

You see, with all the joy that Megan has brought us, her finest quality is her unconditional faith in her Lord Jesus.  You might say she is a little missionary.  Her heart breaks for those at school who do not know the Lord and she makes every attempt to model the character of our Lord and spread His good news of salvation.  Her heart breaks for those who suffer all sorts of pain, hurts, and disorders.  Megan especially loves spending time with students with special needs and has been called into special needs classrooms several times over the years to calm a struggling student - and with success. 

Thank you for taking time to read Megan's story. I hope my readers will find her story inspiring. Megan is living proof that obstacles are just that - obstacles. If you are reading this and your child is suffering from a disability of any kind and your heart is breaking, there is hope. With love, determination, hard work, and above all, FAITH, obstacles can be overcome and progress will be made.

Thank you for allowing me to share Megan's story with you.

Proudly Blessed,

Megan's Mom