Thursday, June 27, 2019

Special Ability


Sorry, folks. Here’s another one of those 100% biased blog posts that’s based on our founder’s experience, #purplepride. As always with the blog post, we must be 100% open and honest so here’s some insight. Originally we started making some special deliveries to kids we connected with on Instagram since we realized that this was one way we could work around the restrictions that hospitals have with HIPAA (#intheroom). Plus we had some additional cards AND we could reach some kids who may be overlooked. As mentioned in the Facebook Live video, there was some bias in terms of the kids we were looking for, but now it’s opened up a bit more. Originally, we were looking for some of these hashtags to find our kids to send cards to:
  •  #seizuressuck
  • #epilepsysucks
  • #pediatricepilepsy
  • #specialneedskids
  • #specialneedsmom
  • #specialneedsdad
A lot of people will probably say we’re reaching many children with “special needs.” They need additional assistance based on their condition. Or one could say that they have a “disability” based on their health situation. This ranges from the children with cancer that we’ve sent cards to the kids overcoming autism.

Not sure if you recall, but WHEN WE GROW UP, we’re going to work harder to reward these children even more—ensuring we’re truly helping them as they’re overcoming their respective health conditions. Here’s a note from our founder:

“I recall the time I was waiting to hear back from my doctor if I’d need to have another brain surgery. It was definitely one of the top 3 most trying times that I’ve been through with my epilepsy process. They told me this was the last medicine that we could try and if it didn’t work that we’d need to do another brain surgery that could have a larger impact OR we’d need to look to insert something into my brain to control the frequency of the seizures. I was pretty shaken up and I was holding on praying that the medicine would continue to work. I couldn’t drive and that contributed to some setbacks in my career. Thankfully, to this day, the medicine has been working and that situation has inspired me to help kids who haven’t been as blessed as I was during that setback.”

Although that seems tough, we’re sure some of the families we’ve been reaching would gladly trade their situation for his. For example, the mother who sent a direct message asking for cards since her daughter just got a second bout of cancer.

In our biased opinion, we think there should be no politically correct way to describe people who have a medical condition. Whether that’s a life-threatening condition or a lifelong setback. Before we describe that please look at some of these Instagram pictures:

 



Look at those smiles! We’re not saying that all those families used the same hashtag, but in our opinion they can all be defined the same way. Instead of being defined as having special needs OR being defined as having a disability, we think they should be combined and labeled as having the SPECIAL ABILITY to overcome their situation and still smile. And we're very impressed!

#specialability #upliftingspirits

To see more pictures and stories, please check out our website www.cardzforkidz.org; like us on Facebook; follow us on Twitter and Instagram; visit our LinkedIn page! Also, check out some of our videos on YouTube!

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