What is your favourite photo of your additional needs child?

Possibly like no generations before, our children have grown up with their whole lives being captured on camera.

Whatever our views on social media, many of our children have had their lives broadcast to the world as every achievement, milestone or event has been posted on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or a hundred other platforms.

As parents and carers we have amassed hundreds, possibly thousands of photos and video clips of our children. Maybe, like me, you keep planning to spend a day or two (or ten!) cataloguing them properly someday, or maybe you’re more organised than me and have done this already.

But in our vast collection of photos of our child (or children), there will be favourites; photos that just captured a moment that was really special, or held for all time a look on our child’s face that was pure joy. Photos that we look back on with nostalgia and delight, reliving that moment again and again in our hearts and minds.

What is your favourite photo of your child? If you are willing to share it, maybe you could add it to where you have seen this blog post shared on social media sites. Maybe add a brief description of the moment that it captures.

Mine? Well, it’s got to be the one I’ve used with this post. A photo of James taken years ago when he was just six years old. It was taken at the park as James played in one of those large plastic bowl swings, the plastic causing his hair to stand on end with the static electricity.

The photo is low-res, his hands are out of focus as he is clapping with delight, it wouldn’t win any photography competitions, but I just love it!

The look of sheer delight on James face, his eyes looking straight at the camera sharing his excitement and the connection of the moment. He is so blissfully happy as he played, as any child of six should be, his additional needs irrelevant for that moment as he plays and laughs.

We might have all sorts of reasons why a particular photo will be our favourite, but whatever your reason is, if you are willing, why not share it so that it can delight others too.

If you don’t want to share it, or can’t, then why not find it anyway and have a look at it yourself, remembering everything about that special moment and savouring the memories in your heart.

I hope James’ joyful smile will reach your heart, that the light in his eyes will bring light to you in this dark season, and that the delight he is experiencing will remind you of happy times that you’ve spent with your child, and will encourage you to look ahead to better days to come.

Mark Arnold, Director of Additional Needs Ministry at Urban Saints. Arnold blogs at The Additional Needs Blogfather. This article was re-published with permission.