You are all the best, the very best!!!   Thank you all for your posts and e
mails!!! The poem I was searching for was on a past post from Katherine
Dettwyler.  It was entitled "I asked God for...and God said No", indeed it
was very touching.  In addition, Katherine sent this quote to me, I thought
I'd share with you all.  Since there was a request for the poem to be posted
to the list, I'm posting  one sent to me by Louise Wills, it follows below.

"This experience we did not choose, which we would have given anything to
avoid, has made us different, has made us better.  Through it we have
learned the lesson that no one studies willingly, the hard slow lesson of
Sophocles and Shakespeare -- that one grows by suffering.  And that too is
Jessy's gift.  I write now what fifteen years past I would still not have
thought possible to write: that if today I were given the choice, to accept
the experience, with everything that it entails, or to refuse the bitter
largesse, I would have to stretch out my hands--because out of it has come,
for all of us, an unimagined life.  And I will not change the last word of
the story.  It is still love."  ----Clara Claibourne Park, The Siege

Heaven's Very Special Child
(author unknown)

A meeting was held quite far from earth.
"It's time again for another birth,"said the
Angels to the Lord above.
"This special child will need much love.
His progress may seem very slow,
accomplishments he may not show
and he'll require extra care
from the folks he meets way down there.
He may not run or laugh or play;
his thoughts may seem quite far away.
In many ways he won't adapt,
And he'll be known as handicapped.
So let's be careful where he's sent,
we want his life to be content.
Please Lord, find parents who
will do a special job for you.
They will not realize right away
the leading role they're asked to play,
But with this child sent from above
comes stronger faith and richer love.
And soon they'll know the privilege given
in caring for this gift from heaven.
Their precious charge, so meek and mild,
is heaven's very special child."