Category Archives: Raising Awareness

Attitude Adjustment

Happy November, Friends! (How did this happen? Wasn’t it just January?) The past few months have been sort of rough for us. For some reason, it seems like everything we’ve done, or tried to do, went horribly wrong. When things don’t go the way I envision them, I tend to get–shall we say–moody? Maybe not…

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Antibiotics: How Do YOU Roll?

Need a little help here, PLEASE: My Big Little Man (who is smaller by 5 lbs now than My Little Man) got that back-to-school cold going around. For us, that means an imminent sinus infection as his compressed sinus cavities — a trait common to those with Down syndrome — makes him prone to this…

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Being the Parent

I sat in the developmental psychologist’s waiting room just simply observing the behavior of the parents. Some were busy filling out paperwork, one was reading a book, another was totally in to playing Angry Birds. Not a single one was watching their child. I watched these children, who were obviously there for a reason, as…

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Leaps and Bounds in Baby Steps

The Boys are swimming underwater like frogmen. Doing underwater headstands, flips and dive-toy retrieval as well as sporting an admirable breast stroke… though they clearly prefer being UNDER the water versus on its surface. (They get that from Mom and Dad being SCUBA divers, I guess.)  The Boys are competent dead-man floaters (face down in the water, breath-holding). But…

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Give ‘Em More Credit… BELIEVE!

You and I know, but does everyone else know? Our kids are smarter than we think. So much smarter than even we give them credit for. WAY smarter than what it says on their report card. And, smarter than any test can possibly measure. I know this… I KNOW IT! And, you know it too!…

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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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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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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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