Encouragement from a grateful mom :)
Shania, I have never written to you (or any celebrity) but after coming across excerpts of your letter in a news article, here I am feeling compelled to respond. I am so grateful to you as your music has been an amazing inspiration to my daughter. My beautiful, sweet girl was diagnosed with autism at age three and was primarily non-verbal, the first song she sang out loud was one of yours! We didn't own any of your music at the time but something in your music and songs reached Lindsay in a way that therapy did not; across the random playing of the radio she learned the lyrics to one of your songs and, suffice it to say that by the end of the next day we owned your entire collection of cd's and videos! That was over five years ago and though she has made tremendous progress we still enjoy our greatest "mom & daughter - girl moments" singing and dancing to your beloved songs. Additionally, I now have another reason to respect you; as a mom. My story is a complex one but as of late our lives are tragically similar and I know the kind of pain you have endured. I relate experientially to what you say about trying to heal while protecting your child; some days seem unbearable indeed. Ironically though, and I am sure you now know this; the greatest challenge of healing (that of protecting our child) can also become the very motivation to make us want to keep going on days when we feel we cannot. Then something happens and one day, when you wake up your first thought is no longer pain, but joy as you feel little hands hugging your neck and see the smiling face of an angel bouncing on the bed and happily demanding breakfast. It sounds like you have done much work already and I wish you many blessings on your continued journey in the process of healing, enjoying your child and writing music that I know my daughter and I zealously anticipate! God bless, Psycheee09
6/13/2009 6:38 AM (GMT-04:00)
