By adapting our communication to meet the needs and communication styles of those we know, we can enter more fully into their world.

Let’s celebrate our ‘badges’ and use them to be a help and a blessing to people who haven’t earned their ‘badge’ yet, but are working towards it.

The lessons we have learned from James’ bath night are important lessons for us to remember in lots of scenarios, and they may just also help you too.

While we are desperate for a break, and for our son to have access to positive experiences, we won’t compromise on the need for James to be safe and well cared for in any provision offered.

We are people of faith, we prayed and trusted in God for the best outcome; but whether you have a faith or not, sometimes taking a risk, taking a chance, can pay off.

It is not all about me, what I can do, sometimes it is about standing back and watching, amazed, at what God does, and giving thanks to Him.

Together, we can help people who journey with children with additional needs to find the trusting friendships and community that they often so badly need.

If Isaac had additional needs or disabilities, what does that say to us today?

I hope it highlighted the challenges, but also the joys, of our story, and echoed the stories of families like ours across the country.

Many of us have something that we started during lockdown four years ago… mine was to start ‘The Dads’ Fire Circle’, a place for Dads (or Dad figures) of children of any age who have additional needs, to gather.

Couples split up for all kinds of reasons, but let it not be because they didn’t get any  support from their church when they were feeling overwhelmed.

Once you start to journal your blessings it becomes not only easier to spot them, but easier to get into the practice of thanking God for them.

Let us follow Jesus’ example and notice people for who they are, and then ask God to help us to be Jesus to them in the ways they need it most.

Loud or echoey noise, bright or flickering lights, strong smells, too much clutter, all of these and more can affect children and young people with a hyper-sensitivity

Malchus’ story is a small footnote in the Gospels, but it is rich with impact as it contains so much that is easily overlooked in the history changing narrative.

We should do all we can to bring children and young people with additional needs into God’s presence and to rejoice with them when they make little steps of faith.

Let’s work together to ensure that every child and young person is able to learn and develop in the way that works best for them.

Creating a place of true belonging for every child and young person with additional needs, church become better for us all.

Inclusion is about the church taking positive action, not expecting a child, young person, or adult, to ‘fit in’.

“I’ll only be five minutes…” or “I’m in a hurry…” are some of the justifications given.

Take anxiety and worries seriously. It’s easy to put their concerns off, or to convince ourselves that ‘they will be fine’.

Perhaps if we dig a little deeper, we might realise that we are only acting on a part of the story; we’ve missed some vital information, and our response needs to be very different.

Let’s  do all we can to be the difference for every child and young person who chooses to journey with us.

Pray that God will give you the faith, persistence and determination to keep on praying, even when we seem to be getting no response.

Due to his various additional needs, James doesn’t really ‘get’ birthdays, but that didn’t mean that we would let the day slip by unnoticed…