Special Needs & Disabilities

Angel for Higher chronicles the joyfully inspirational journey of Robert Hendershot, a recovering alcoholic, and his son Trevor, who has Down syndrome, as they seek God's will for their lives. When Trevor was born with Down syndrome, Robert was shock Learn More

The 2014 Christianity Today Book Award Winner (Her.meneutics) Winner of a 2013 Leadership Journal Book Award ("Our Very Short List" in "The Leader's Outer Life" category) Mental illness is the sort of thing we don't like to talk about. It doesn't reduc... Learn More

Meet a remarkable young man. Max doesn't communicate like we do. But he communicates better than we do about the most important things. Max doesn't think like we do. But his actions reflect deep spiritual truths. With candor and wit, Emily Colson sh... Learn More

When a family is affected by disability, everyone’s life changes. Whether you’re a father, mother, sibling, grandparent, or other relative, you have specific questions based on your role in the family as well as unique needs for support. Real Families, Real Needs by Joni and Friends not only answers those questions, but also provides godly advice and spiritual hope for the challenges you face. Divided into five sections written specifically for every member of the family, this book also offers encouragement, Scriptures to lean on, practical ideas, and more. Learn from the stories of families like yours, and be inspired as they share how God has helped them live victoriously through the challenges of life with disability. Find comfort and peace in a community of people who understand what you face on a daily basis. You are not alone! Learn More

Most Christian parents are bombarded with all kinds of advice and plans and programs for how to be a great parent. In parenting eight kids over the last twenty-five years, Julie Lyles Carr and her husband experienced plenty of opportunity for learning, but it was when they began to understand it was about parenting each child according to their own unique needs and personality style that something wonderful happened.

In Raising an Original, Carr helps to redefine the primary purpose of Christian parenting, this raising of the next generation. God has given each of our children specific gifts, abilities and capacities for specific purposes and He can equip parents to discover and support those powerful personality traits if they know where to look and how to respond. So many kids raised in Christian homes launch into their adult lives without any sense of knowing who they are called to be or what their mission on earth is. What if parents, teachers or mentors could help them discover the wondrous, unique threads woven within them that will enable them to see their part in the fabric of God's universe?

Readers of Raising an Original will be equipped to help their children:

• Understand their unique strengths and the challenges associated with them
• Discover their God-given gifts and how to use them for His glory
• Succeed regardless of their circumstances

Raising an Original will provide readers with tools for better communication with their children as well as tools for uniquely guiding and disciplining each unique child. With a helpful and detailed Personality Trait Assessment Tool included as a major part of the book, readers will understand themselves, their parenting style, and their child better. They will also discover ways to improve their children's communication within sibling groups and with parents themselves.

Readers will find freedom in discovering that God hasn't asked them to raise perfect children; He's asked them to uniquely raise purposed children.

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Nathan was different and Sally knew it.
From his early childhood, Nathan was bursting with creativity and uncontainable energy, struggling not only with learning issues but also with anxiety and OCD. He saw the world through his own unique l... Learn More

Parents raising a child with special needs want to equip their child with the skills and abilities necessary to live the most independent life possible. But actually accomplishing this can be difficult. Learning to empower a child with strength, dignit... Learn More

These are the faces that call me "mom," the three children who made me a mother.

When I started my journey into parenthood I never thought it would look like this. I never planned on having three adopted children, and I certainly never imagined that two of them would have Down syndrome. But like most of the things God does, once we stepped into the craziness and confusion of the unknown and unplanned, we quickly realized that we were indeed among the lucky few.

When my husband and I decided to grow our family ten years ago, we were surprised to find that getting pregnant was not as easy as we had thought it would be. And as we navigated the ups and downs of infertility, God led us down the path of adoption. Of course, we would adopt Not what we had originally planned, but certainly a wonderful option.

But just as we began to get a comfortable grasp on growing our family through adoption, God introduced us to Macyn Hope, a very sick little girl with Down syndrome who desperately needed a family. As we continued to follow God's calling, first with Macyn, and later with Truly and then August, we found ourselves further and further from the comfortable paths we thought our lives would take, and instead moving down some very scary, and often painful roads.

Even though at times His plan seemed terrifying and even downright foolish, little could we have known how much goodness, blessing, and joy would flow out of loving these three little people He's put into our lives. No, it's not been easy: not the open-heart surgeries or the challenges of raising two children with Down syndrome or the complexities of dealing with birth-families or the struggles we've had with the public education system. But through it all, every new and uncomfortable situation has only proven to be another chance to see how very good God's plan is for our lives and how downright lucky we are to be able to live it out.

It's only the lucky few that recognize that the most beautiful things in this life are often found in the differences. What some would see as misfortune, I've learned to see as nothing more than pure luck.

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She was a beautiful pint-sized girl with a big love. And the best scholars in the world couldn't teach what she did in her brief life. Megan died at age ten. But her life has exposed some of the insanities of the world and revealed four life-giving sec... Learn More