Mental illness...it is a mystery. When my husband and I got married, we knew we wanted children, lots of them! When our first child arrived, a son (who shall be known as Pawn) , we fell instantly in love with him. The hospital handed us lots of literature to read, we got books and read them and we prayed, prayed for the wisdom ad strength to raise up this little son of God.
We hoped for the best, we did our best and all was good...until.....
We didn't know, we had no experience or knowledge nor did we even know what to look for. It's not like they hand you a manual on symptoms of mental illness as you leave the hospital.
Fifteen years later, Pawn was changing, not the polite respectful young man he had always been. Pawn had started to get into some mild struggles with us, his parents (King and Queen), and others. Some signs appeared, but we had no idea what we were suppose to be looking for, and 3+ years later after frustrations, confusion, contention, fears, tears, sleepless nights, and finally a forced trip to the hospital....we had our first clue...bi-polar was the first, yes, the first diagnosis.
