Thursday, July 29, 2010

Praise The Lord for Answered Prayers

My Beautiful Autistic Daughter has been trying with all of her might to find a job for the three years since she graduated from high school.  She only wanted a part time job, nothing fancy or career oriented, just something that would give her a little pocket money and  a sense of accomplishment as she attempted to work through some courses at the local Community College. 

She has had so many disappointments in the past two three years,  I can't tell you.  One store here in town wouldn't consider her for a stock person job because she might have to talk to shoppers and they were afraid she wouldn't be able to do that.  In all the times I have shopped there I have never had a stock person talk to me, (and when she worked for a short time at the IU bookstore as stock help she was wonderful about helping students find the books they needed, so what joke that the other place wouldn't give her a chance).   Most of the other places took one look at the way she paces and doesn't make eye contact and wouldn't even give her an interview beyond allowing her to fill out an application. 

Yesterday she was offered a job with the IU Libraries, which is the perfect position for her.  She can work on her own, she has volunteered in a library setting for years and doesn't need much training, and  she did a trial run there in January for a month to prove to them that she could hold her own.

Thanks to laws like the Americans with Disabilities Act,  people like my daughter can find meaningful employment.    All they want is a chance to prove that they can do the job just as well as anyone else. 

It isn't lost on me that her job offer came on the anniversary of this groundbreaking legislation.

Thank you to all of my friends who have been praying for this for so long.  We knew it would happen if we waited long enough, but it didn't keep us from getting discouraged as the months kept going by without any sign of movement in her direction.

This just proves that God is faithful, and God's time is perfect.

Pax

7 comments:

leftbanker said...

Rand Paul (R-KY) said “Requiring businesses to provide access to disabled people isn’t “fair to the business owner...

Congratulations for finally becoming a liberal. Conservatives fought this bit of legislation tooth and nail.

Unknown said...

We live in about the most liberal city in Indiana. It took three years for the wonderful liberals here in Bloomington to condescend to find a place for my wonderful daughter whose only fault is that she looks and act a little "different" than the average person her age. So no mr leftbanker, I am not and will never be a liberal. I believe that had we lived in a more conservative area we might have found much more compassion for her differences and more people who would have given her a chance.

The Ironic Catholic said...

This is cool!

and -- you got tagged at my blog.

leftbanker said...

I could concede your point except for the fact that your daughter was hired by ultra-hippie-liberal Indiana University—and a government job no less. Conservatives hate the government. More compassion in a conservative area? Let’s try to be at least a little bit rational. You should admit that Bloomington is about the only place in Indiana that’s livable precisely because it is progressive. If you don’t think this then why don’t you move to this imaginary conservative paradise? Where would that be?

Spain is extremely progressive in the area of hiring people with disabilities and their politics are so far left that they don’t even register on the American scale.

Unknown said...

Leftbanker, I would agree with you if it hadn't taken that wonderfully liberal organization IU an entire year from the time she first applied there of her job coaches begging and pleading and cajolling and convincing them that she could in fact do the work just as competently as other non-disabled students. If it werent for those wonderful people who fought so hard in her corner I don't think liberal IU would have given her the job.

Unknown said...

BTW: Rand Paul doesn't speak for all Republicans or all conservatives. and We don't live in Kentucky (praise God).

Unknown said...

BTW: we don't live in liberal left wing hippie Bloomington, we live in the surrounding county which has never been liberal/left wing or a hippie enclave and has as a rule voted for the conservative choice every election.