Having A Child With Special Needs: An Interview with Abigail Dodds | Ep. 58

Risen Motherhood

Religion & Spirituality, Christianity, Parenting, Kids & Family

4.9 • 6.8K Ratings

🗓️ 5 April 2017

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In motherhood, sometimes unexpected and even grief-filled news about your child can change all of your hopes and dreams for the future. When her son Titus was flagged for having a small cerebellum at his 20-week ultrasound, Abigail Dodds and her husband began their God-appointed journey as parents to a child with special needs. In this episode, she shares wisdom, rooted in the truth of the gospel, about everything from facing fears of the future to facing the hard chaotic "I can't do this" moments of the present. Whether you are a mom to your own child with special needs, an Aunt or Grandparent of a child with special needs, or a woman hoping to come alongside a friend as a loving support -- this episode is for you! As you'll hear Abigail share, God's promises in Christ can provide true joy and encouragement in any circumstance.

Articles & Resources:

Abigail's Blog || Hope & Stay (here you can find lots of her writing on the topic of special needs)
The Works of God - A blog by John Knight with a wealth of helpful material
Joni and Friends - Joni Erikson Tada is always inspirational and constantly points to Jesus. Also, she has a tab "Area Ministries" that can help connect you with a church that has a disability ministry.
God's Good Design in Disability - The audio archives from a Desiring God conference on disability in 2012
Disability and the Sovereign Goodness of God - Free .pdf download || resources from John Piper
The Life We Never Expected: Hopeful Reflections on the Challenges of Parenting Children With Special Needs - Andrew & Rachel Wilson (foreword by Russell Moore)
The Life They Never Expected - Laura Dilly (book review / reflection)
Mix for Moms in Need of Hope - A collection of youtube songs (curated by Abigail) for grief and processing

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Motherhood is hard. One second, we think we're doing a good enough job and the next we feel
0:09.8	like the worst mom on the planet, which is why we need the refreshing truth of the gospel
0:14.8	to be repeated over and over, giving us hope in the everyday moments. So, mama, whether
0:20.8	you're sipping cold coffee or doing a sink full of dishes, we hope you'll find truth,
0:25.6	encouragement and laughter here. This is the RISM Motherhood Podcast. Thanks for joining us.
0:37.2	Hey guys, Emily Jensen here. Today we have a really special episode for you guys. We're talking
0:42.4	to Abigail Dodds about her journey with her son Titus, who has special needs. She is a wife
0:49.6	and a mom to five kiddos and she's also a Bible study teacher and she does just a lot of writing
0:55.2	online. And so, we'll link to this in the show notes, but you can actually find a lot of her
0:59.4	stuff on being a mom to a child with special needs on her blog, hopeinstay.com. But we know no
1:06.8	matter where you're at in the journey or even if you don't have a kiddo directly with special needs,
1:12.0	you are going to be encouraged by the show. She has so much wisdom to share everything for how to
1:18.4	deal with practical self-care, how to trust God's goodness in the midst of hard things, how do we
1:23.5	face fear with truth? So, the list goes on. I would just really encourage you guys to stay tuned
1:30.4	and I know that you'll be blessed. So, let's listen in.
1:37.2	Well, hi Abigail. Thank you so much for joining us today on RISM Motherhood. We're so happy to have
1:41.2	you here. Can you take just a second to tell us a little bit about yourself? We know you're a wife,
1:45.5	a mama, a writer, and just share a little bit to you with our listeners about your child with
1:51.4	special needs. Yep. So, I'm married to Tom. He's a great man. I got a really good deal when I married him.
1:59.6	He's an elder at our church here in the Twin Cities and we've been married. It'll be 15 years
2:04.4	this June. We've got five kiddos and our oldest daughter Izzy Leiza. She's 13 and then we've got
2:12.0	Seth, who's 11, Eliana, who's 9, Evangeline is 6 and then our youngest Titus, he's 3 and he's
	...

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