Category Archives: Advocacy

Perfectly Imperfect

That’s what I am.   I don’t know about you, but sometimes I get bone tired. Tired beyond tired. Tired to the point where all I crave is sleep, and yet  it eludes me. It is in these moments of sheer exhaustion that I sometimes have the most clarity. It makes no sense to me,…

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    Jack met with the developmental psychologist on Tuesday for a few hours. We have been noticing some hard-core aggression along with some other really disturbing “new habits” that have come up in the past few months (for example, he’s taken to not sleeping again, and he’s picked all the nails off his fingers…

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Be Prepared….

Living in Florida, I know a bit about natural disasters. Like when, in 2005, 3 hurricanes hit us in 6 weeks. I got a new roof twice. Back then, I only had the Girl Child, who was 5. She was self-sufficient, opinionated, and stubborn–but she knew when Momma said, “Get in the bathroom and cover…

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Fatherhood, redefined…

My life changed drastically the day we adopted Jack. I just didn’t know how much it was changed. We struggled to have our oldest child. She was born early, but healthy. Shortly after her birth, I had a large lump removed from my breast. 2 months after that, I had a complete hysterectomy. We knew…

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Moms Gone Mad!

I have tried… When Jack was taking therapy a million hours a week, I would sit in the waiting room and take in the “sights” and sounds around me (seriously, people, leggings are NOT pants!). So many times my heart broke when I would hear another parent, under the guise of “advocacy,” just pick apart…

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Special Needs Sports

When Jack was first diagnosed, and we still felt like the world was ending, my husband was devastated. Not because of the diagnosis, but because of what Jack may not ever be able to do—play football, or baseball, or any of those “guy” things. Personally, I believe that deep down, there’s this innate thing that…

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What a Special Needs Mom wants for Mother’s Day

This week, I’ve read lots of blog posts and memes about Mother’s Day. Some of them are pretty dead on accurate, and others hurt my heart. Lots of them are about what mother’s really want for Mother’s Day—things like for children to close the doors, pick up socks, and so on. So as I was…

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How to Save a Life

“And I would have stayed up with you all night…” (The Fray) Funny…my nights are filled with constant coughing. Wet washcloths to the forehead. Pulse oximetry. Puking of mucus. Pedialyte. Medication. Pillows.     My little dude is not doing so hot. His lungs aren’t doing their job very well. There’s Lysol, medications, inhalers, nebulizers,…

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The Beauty in the Beast

We, lovingly, call Jack “The Beast” sometimes. We don’t mean it in a derogatory way at all. Just in a way that we all know is true— he’s kinda Beastly (he’s a growler…loves to growl all the time when we’re out. Growls at old ladies, at kids, at dogs…). Sometimes he’s “Beastly” or “My Beasty…

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Faith and Hope and Love.

The thing about faith is that…it’s not transient. You either have it or you don’t. You don’t have to believe in the God I believe in to have faith either. You can have faith in lots of things–doctors, teachers, friends. To have faith, you have to trust. A lot. Believe. A lot. So where does…

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