Follow the Bread Crumbs

I just finished working my radio station's annual radiothon to benefit children here in the Twin Cities.  We raise money for two very special organizations that help children with cancer and disabilities.  As I was interviewing different parents I was reminded of one very special mother that I had met last year.  Her name is Theresa Lao.  She had two little boys with a condition that caused their skin to shed off of their bodies.  When I met her there was no cure for this condition known as EB.  Yet, she continued fighting and petitioning for her sons and finally found Dr. Waggoner at the U of M Fairview Children's Hospital who was willing to try to find a cure.  She moved her two sons out to MN from NJ and lived in a hotel so that they could be part of a medical trial that just might work.

One of my questions to her was this, "How did you know the next 'right' thing to do for your children...How did you know what your next step would be?"  Her answer was simple, "God always gives me the bread crumbs and I just have to follow them."  She was referring to the Hansel and Gretel story and it made a visual impression on me that stuck.  I met her in the Fall of '07 not knowing how my life would change that following Spring.  That Spring I would find out that my daughter had autism.  I have so often thought of Theresa and I have taken the 'breadcrumbs' piece of advice to heart.  Whenever I wonder if I am doing all that I can for Aleks and question what I should be doing next, I think of the breadcrumbs.  I have found that God truly does give us breadcrumbs of knowledge.  He'll use someone else to mention something that is working for them, I'll then get an email about it or have a second person mention it and then it hits me that this is a breadcrumb moment.  I have found that He'll keep giving me the breadcrumbs, but that it is my job to follow up on them.  It is also my job as the mom of a child with ASD to be aware and open to wherever God is leading us.  

My advice to parents struggling with the question of 'What next?' is this, look for the breadcrumbs.  Just be prepared that they may not be where you thought they would be and they may not be what you expected at all.  You may also be surprised at who God uses to show you a breadcrumb.

Blessings-

Melissa