Are you scrounging for thankfulness this Thanksgiving? Holidays can be a challenge for those walking through hard days. Perhaps you feel like you’ve been handed the short-end of the stick; your child is struggling, you’re exhausted and it seems like everybody else has life with a bit more gravy.It’s easy to focus on our circumstances,…
We’ve just moved. We planned it such, that my sister Sue would care for our Joey (son with special needs who is age 35) for a long weekend so we could get his room set up. This would allow us to prepare ahead of time for those bumps in the road that happen when BIG…
Some days are harder than others. We don’t do change. You, too? And in our house routine is key. We mostly get up at the same time. We eat the same foods (cheese quesadilla, thank you very much), at the same Mexican restaurant. We watch the same television shows and go to the exact same…
Parents, God has not forgotten your dreams. Our dreams may lie dormant for decades, but if they’re His dreams for us, they will come back to find us when we least think them possible. They will come back in some way—to prove to us that not only does God see our special kids, but he…
I remember years ago when my son Charlie was just under two years old, before his autism diagnosis, we had started a 529 Savings Plan for both of my children to help save towards college. I was excited that we were starting early and hopeful by doing this we would be able to pay for…
“How do you deal with the possibility that you could be a ‘forever mom,’ that is, that Polly and Evangeline may never leave home?” a young mom asks me after I finish sharing our family’s story with her MOPS group. I get this question often. It makes sense. I have children with special needs. We are…
I can’t help but reflect upon how different our parenting journey was from theirs. Our first child was born in 1982. Hours after our son’s birth when he was diagnosed with a life-threatening birth anomaly, every expectation we had for him and for ourselves as parents crumbled. Other parents were choosing which kind of diapers…
Right now, people seem inscrutable, rhetoric is flammable, the world looks combustible. But these kids of mine, they put everything in perspective. My darling kids, the ones with developing body odor and dirty rooms and expertise in sibling attack strategies a la Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. They are a respite from everything upside down, and is…
I read a blog yesterday from a mother of a child with Down syndrome. “I love my daughter but I’m not ready to celebrate Down syndrome.” I just want to say that I hear you. And I validate you. Sometimes in our special needs circles certain types of people are pushed forward as spokespeople. You’ve…
This fall, ABC debuted a new series about a special-needs family. 7.29 million people tuned in the first week to meet the DiMeo family—Maya (played by Minnie Driver) her husband Jimmy, and their kids JJ, Ray, and Dylan. Show creator Scott Silveri drew from his experiences growing up with an older brother with a disability,…