The Miracle Worker

Have you ever had that moment when you realize that you are unconsciously acting out a movie scene?

A few weeks ago at dinner Maddox and I were having a battle of wills. Typically he does well at the table. The boy loves to eat. But every once in a while he will get this look of utter defiance on his face and begin throwing food in every direction. This particular day it was applesauce. He eats really well with spoon and fork, but this day he was determined to stick his fingers in the applesauce. Maddox is a sensory sensitive kid when it comes to weird textures. He hates to have stuff stick to his fingers, like applesauce. So when he does get something like that on them, he shakes them furiously in an attempt to get it off. It's like sticking applesauce in a fan. It goes everywhere. I'd had a long day at work and was not going to spend the rest of the evening wiping applesauce off the walls. So I took it away. Immediate screaming. I handed him his spoon and put the applesauce back in front of him. He puts the spoon down and reaches to stick his hand in it and I snatch it away. More screaming. Again I hand him the spoon and he throws it...as hard as he can. I pick it up and force his little fist open and force those amazingly strong fingers closed around it. I dip in in the applesauce and force the spoon to his mouth. Thinking I won, I let go. He spits out the applesauce and hurls the spoon across the room again. So we start over. At this point Jason and Mia quietly snuck out of the room. We did it over and over and he screamed and whined and after what seemed like hours, finally gave in and took a bite with his spoon. I was exhausted!

Suddenly the scene began to feel eerily familiar.

Does anyone remember that old movie about Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan, The Miracle Worker? (If not click on the link to see the scene I'm talking about). There is a scene where Anne is trying to teach Helen to eat at the table and the interaction gets quite violent. I promise there was no slapping in our scene!

Part of me found this comical and the other part of me was a little discouraged. Will it always be so hard to teach him things? Having had a neurotypical child first (yes, having a child with autism comes with it's own vocabulary), it seemed like Mia just learned things on her own. I never really felt like I was teaching her. She just picked it up.

As I began to dwell on that, I remembered the rest of the movie. The rest of Helen Keller's story. She learned to SPEAK. Despite disabilities, despite the hardship, she succeeded. She credited her success to Anne Sullivan, her miracle worker.

Well, guess what? I've got a Miracle Worker of my own.

Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." ~Matthew 19:26