“He kept asking, ‘Can I get dressed now? Can I get dressed now?‘” his mother, Michelle Lovejoy said. “He looks forward to this night. It’s his favorite night of the year.”
No wonder.
Thanks to countless volunteers and the leadership team at Berachah Church, those with special needs, their parents and caregivers, were treated special for one night.
On March 28, he went from Liam Michael Lovejoy to King Lovejoy since all attendees are crowned kings and queens.
The 18-year-old who attended Madison schools before he was homeschooled the last three years, was diagnosed with the autism spectrum and has develop delays and seizures, his mother said.
She, too, looks forward to “One Special Night” because, while she volunteered as a nurse at the event, she was given a break from caring for her son.
“We love him and we wouldn’t change him,” she said. “And he wants to feel grown-up and do things when I’m not there. Everybody wants to feel grown-up.”
Michelle and her husband, Vince, never refer to their son’s limitations as disabilities.
Not in their vocabulary.
Instead, they tell Liam, “these are the abilities you have.”
When he graduated, Liam applied for Project Life, a program for people with disabilities at Butler Tech. During the interview process, Liam was asked how his disabilities have impacted his life.
He turned to his mother and asked: “What’s a disability?”
She told me: “We never treated him like he has one.”
As she watched her son, who wore a cowboy hat, bandana and suspenders, from a distance at the dance, Lovejoy saw the joy on her son’s face and the faces of the nearly 100 attendees from throughout the region.
She called it “an incredible evening” due to those who volunteered their time and talents.
“We got way more in return,” she said, speaking about the volunteers.
The Lovejoys, who have two other sons, Brayden, 28, and Landon, 17, attend Berachah Church that says it’s a home “for the lost. lonely and left out.”
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
Children with special needs are “left out all the time,” Lovejoy said. But at Berachah, she said, they’re “wanted and needed” there.
Austin Randall, kids and community outreach pastor at Berachah, went even further. He said children with special needs are the “most neglected in the world.”
“One Special Night” provides a “true blessing” to the children and young adults and those who volunteer, he said.
“It’s a blast,” said Randall, 27, who has a wife, Makenzie, a 2-year-old son Landon and another son, Cooper, on the way.
The evening shows those with special needs that they’re “just like everybody else,” he said. “Christ died for them like everybody else. We want them to know that Jesus loves and cares for them. It’s all He does and continues to do.”
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