"For my talk I have a story on faith...
Covering
all the bases.
"A little boy was overheard talking to himself
as he walked through the back yard wearing his base baseball cap and holding
his ball and bat.
"I’m the greatest baseball player in
the world, he said proudly. Then he tossed the ball into
the air, swung and missed. His faith unshaken he picked up the ball
and threw it into the air and said to himself again,
"I’m the greatest player ever!
He swung at the ball again, and again he missed. He paused for a
moment, and examined the ball and bat carefully... Then once again the
threw the ball into the air and said,
"I’M the greatest baseball player who
ever lived! Then he swung the bat hard and again missed the
ball.
"WoW!" He said. “What
a Pitcher!”
>
A mom's reflections - A little about
Jared
Jared was very gentle and
loving. I don't ever remember that he said anything bad about anyone
and I never heard him call anyone a name. He was a little tease at
times, however. He liked to sneak up on members of the family and
scare us unawares, like coming out of the bathroom. He'd get
a kick out of watching us jump.
Jared had hearing problems
when he was a baby and toddler, caused from ear infections and allergies.
He had two sets of tubes put in his ears before he turned 6 years old.
Unfortunately he was hearing like he was underwater and in order to communicate
he would grunt and physically take us and point to what he wanted.
He started in The Little People's Program in Arizona just as he
turned 3 years old. Within a few months we started to understand
what he wanted. It was great! But he was behind in school all
of his life because of his speech delays and he was in a speech special
needs class through 5th grade.
When Jared was very young
he had "trichotillomania." No, not some horrible psycho problem.
It's a "hair pulling" condition caused from little-kid stress. Kids
of all ages do this; an estimated 1% to 2% of kids currently have trichotillomania
or a history of hair-pulling. Jared would twist his hair in one little
spot on his top, right side, until there was no hair left in a quarter
sized area. We would cut his hair really short so he couldn't pull
it. It worked until his hair got longer again, and then he'd start pulling
again. Most people didn't notice because he would smile real cute
like and everyone would focus on that more.
In sixth grade he took a
couple of special needs classes but on the whole we were beginning to believe
that he was ready to move into the mainstream of learning. After
the assault, however, he no longer could concentrate
and his learning went downhill from that point on.
Jared was a very physical
child. I have no doubt that he could of been an Olympian Trampoline
Jumper, ...if there were a category for that. His physical ability
started at a very young age for him because he didn't know how to communicate
verbally so he did it physically. I think he got a lot of joy watching
us get excited by his climbing walls, fences, and door jams. Be sure
and see Jared's life and the picture of Jared climbing the door jam.
He was awesome! Jared was also a quiet child. I think he didn't
talk much because he was unsure of his speaking ability. These
are just some of the things I remember about Jared.
