Telling our story

At back to school night a couple weeks ago, Jodie told Eric's health teacher that she and I would be willing to come and speak to her class about our experiences as people with cerebral palsy, Ann, Eric's health teacher (also basketball coach when he was very young), said that she was doing a unit on brain injury and that a presentation from us would fit in well.

Yesterday, Jodie and I took the day off work to go and speak to Ann's three health classes, including Eric's.

My prior experience doing this kind of thing was when I was in junior high I was asked to speak to my sister's first grade class. I was such a hit that the teacher asked me back for a couple years. Young kids...so innocent and honest with their questions...I was able to tell the kids how much like them that I was, how I became disabled, and that I could do most of the things they could do, only differently.

Jodie use to travel for a non-profit group called "Breakthrough" speaking to church groups throughout the U.S. to promote disability awareness. Jodie has a lot of speaking experience and has thought for a long time that she and I could travel and share our story with groups. She is a speaker and I am a writer...one of these days it will come together.

Ann wanted us to talk about our cerebral palsy...what it is and what caused it. We know the cause - Jodie was under 2 pounds at birth, and I had the umbilical cord wrapped around my neck, choking oxygen to my brain. It was funny, Jodie and I don't know much about the technical aspects of cerebral palsy, so we were surfing the internet trying to learn more about cerebral palsy.

Jodie talked about her birth, how the doctor was not sure how she would survive her first night. and her early life. I talked about how my grandma, a nurse, could tell that I was not holding my head up right when I was 8 months old, and that shortly after that I was diagnosed as having cerebral palsy.

Jodie shared about the early school days we spent at Holladay Center in Portland, the intense therapy we went through, and the special kind of baseball we use to play.

It was hard to tell what the kids were most interested in hearing about. One boy wanted to know how I could drive.

After the first class, Ann encouraged us to share more about God in our life. Jodie shared about going to her room as a child and praying for God to heal her. Years later she told her pastor. The pastor explained to Jodie the many ways that God had healed her and brought her through life.

I shared about how people have prayed with me for healing, and how I have felt bad for them when I have not been healed by their faith. I shared about how Paul prayed for God to remove his thorn from his flesh, thought to be weak eyesight, but God chose not to. "...for my power is made perfect in weakness."

Anyway, Jodie and I are open to sharing our stories to other groups, kids or adults. You can find more information about us at wittren.com. We are willing to answer any question and we want to do whatever we can to promote disability awareness.