FORWARDED EMAIL

I HAVE RECIEVE A COUPLE OF EMAILS LATELY THAT WERE RATHER INSPIRATIONAL AND ALSO REVEALING WHEN IT COME TO EXPLAINING WHAT APRENT LIKE US GO THRU AND FEEL

SO  I HAVE DECIDED TO POST THEM HERE BECAUSE YOU NEVER KNOW WHEN SOMEONE MAY BENEFIT FROM THE WORDS OF ANOTHER

THE FIRST ON IS MORE OF A JOKE ABOUT PERSISTANCE AND NOT ONLY DOES IT EXPLAIN THE DRIOVE BEHIND PARENTS OF KIDS WITH SPECIAL NEEDS  IT CAN ALSO APPLY TO THE   "MAKE UP" OF OUR KIDS SINCE  PERSISTANCE AND PERSEVERATION HAVE A SIMILAR LANGUAGE ROOT:

In Jerusalem , a female CNN journalist heard about a very old Jewish man
who had been going to the Wailing Wall to pray, twice a day, every day,
for a long, long time.

So she went to the Wailing Wall to check it out, and there he was.

She watched him pray and after about 45 minutes, when he turned to
leave, she approached him for an interview.

"I'm Rebecca Smith from CNN. Sir, how long have you been coming to the
Wall and praying?"

"For about 60 years".

"Sixty years! That's amazing! What do you pray for?"

"I pray for peace between the Christians, Jews and the Muslims. I pray
for all the hatred to stop and I pray for all our children to grow up in
safety and friendship."

"Sir, how do you feel after doing this for 60 years?"

"Like I'm talking to a f**kin' wall."

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THE NEXT 2 STORIES ARE ABOUT KIDS THAT ARE CHALLENGED AND HOW THEY LIVE THEIR LIVES FROMSUCH A "PURE" STANDPOINT:

Some people understand life better, and they call some of these people "retarded"...

  At the Seattle Special Olympics, nine contestants, all physically or mentally disabled,
  assembled at the starting line for the 100-yard dash.

  At the gun, they all started out, not exactly in a dash, but with a relish to run the race
  to the finish and win. All, that is, except one little boy who stumbled on the asphalt,
  tumbled over a couple of times, and began to cry.
  The other eight heard the boy cry. They slowed down and looked back. Then they all
  turned around and went back... every one of them. One girl with Down's Syndrome bent
  down and kissed him and said, "This will make it better."
  Then all nine linked arms and walked together to the finish line.
  Everyone in the stadium stood. The cheering went on for several minutes. People who
  were there are still telling the story.

  Why?

  Because deep down we know this one thing: What matters in this life is more than
  winning for ourselves.  What matters in this life is helping others win, even if it means
  slowing down and changing our course.
  If you pass this on, we may be able to change our hearts as well as someone else's.
  "A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle."
  Friends Make The World Go Round.
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AND FINALLY A PARENT WHO WILL NEVER GIVE UP:

Strongest Dad in the World [From Sports Illustrated, By Rick Reilly]

I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay for their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots. But compared with Dick Hoyt, I suck.

Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in marathons. Eight times he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars--all in the same day.

Dick's also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. on a bike. Makes taking your son bowling look a little lame, right?

And what has Rick done for his father? Not much--except save his life.

This love story began in Winchester, Mass., 43 years ago, when Rick was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs. "He'll be a vegetable the rest of his life;'' Dick says doctors told him and his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months
old. "Put him in an institution."

But the Hoyts weren't buying it. They noticed the way Rick's eyes followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was anything to help the boy communicate. "No way,'' Dick says he was told. "There's nothing going on in his brain.'' "Tell him a joke,'' Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a lot was going on in his brain.

Rigged up with a computer that allowed him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? "Go Bruins!'' And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the school organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked
out, "Dad, I want to do that.''

Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described "porker'' who never ran more than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he tried. "Then it was me who was handicapped,'' Dick says. "I was sore for two weeks.''

That day changed Rick's life. "Dad,'' he typed, "when we were running, it felt like I wasn't disabled anymore!'' And that sentence changed Dick's life. He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon. "No way,'' Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren't quite a single runner, and they weren't quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then they found a way to get into the race officially: In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the qualifying time for Boston the following year. Then somebody said, "Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?''

How's a guy who never learned to swim and hadn't ridden a bike since he was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick tried.

Now they've done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii. It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don't you think?
Hey, Dick, why not see how you'd do on your own? "No way,'' he says. Dick does it purely for "the awesome feeling'' he gets seeing Rick with a cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.

This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters.  Their best time? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992--only 35 minutes off the world record, which, in case you don't keep track of these things, happens to be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the time.
"No question about it,'' Rick types. "My dad is the Father of the Century.'' And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had a mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries was 95% clogged. "If you hadn't been in such great shape,'' one doctor told him, "you probably would've died 15 years ago."

So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other's life. Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets homecare) and works in Boston, and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass., always find ways to be together.

They give speeches around the country and compete in some backbreaking race every weekend, including this Father's Day. That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants to give him is a gift he can never buy. "The thing I'd most like,'' Rick types, "is that my dad sit in the chair and I push him once."

This is a video clip of the Father and Son team that did the Iron Man together.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjPrL3n63yg

I HOPE SOME HOW THIS REACHS A PERSON IT IS INTENDED FOR!