It's Christmas- through the eyes of a child with FASD

"Its the Most Wonderful Time of the Year", or so the song says. And in many ways it truly is. As Christian's we celebrate the birth of Jesus. The miracle of His arrival. But for a child with FASD it is one of the most overwhelming times of the year.Every where you go, there are decorations and lights. Down every street. If you go to the store, there are four times as many people, loud music over the intercom, all kinds of seasonal smells to greet you the second you walk in the door. So many displays that you can hardly move around with out bumping into something or someone.If you are a child with FASD, processing all of these things is all but impossible. Especially if you have a Sensory Processing Disorder. Imagine if you will, you just walked into a room that has Heavy Metal, RAP, Country, Classical, and Bluegrass music playing at full volume, there are strobe lights of various colors, sweet, sour, strong, soft, flowery, citrus, and herbal scented candles burning all around you. Then imagine that you have on the scratchiest, roughest wool body suit you can imagine, that covers you from head to toe. On your hands you have mittens on made of the same material that won't come off. So no matter how hard you try to escape all of these assault's, you can't.That is sort of what it is like for a child with Sensory Processing Disorder who has FASD. I know this because my precious little girl suffers both conditions.While she loves to drive around and see the beautiful lights, after about two blocks, she is overwhelmed and ready to go home. If we go to the store-which I try to avoid as much as possible, it only takes about 15 minutes on a good day for her to be ready to leave. On a bad day, we are lucky to make it in the door. Should I have to extend our trip to the grocery, and not leave the first time she says 'Momma I wanna go home" it isn't long before she is either in tears or screaming.Now lets look at Christmas morning- most kid's love ripping the paper off their presents to find the treasure Santa left them. For my little one, as much as she wants to like the idea of lots of presents, it too is overwhelming for her. After about 3 or 4 presents that are wrapped in pretty paper, she is tired and needs to rest-remember she is still wearing the woolen mittens that don't come off-so she has exhausted herself just unwrapping the presents.I don't mean to sound sad, or disappointed, because I'm not. I am so blessed to have the remarkable little girl that is my daughter. Her challenges have made it possible for me to really look at what makes Christmas special. Is it the lights, decorations, and presents? The frenzy of running around and worrying about what presents to buy? No its not. I have the privilege of reminding my little girl and myself of the true meaning of Christmas. The REALLY important part-that our Lord and Saviour was born and that we celebrate His birthday on Christmas. That it isn't about the presents and decorations. It is about a baby born 2000 years ago. And ya know what? She can understand that and not be over whelmed, because she knows who Jesus is .