Category Archives: Adoption

How to Hold it Together When the World Falls Apart

Hi you guys! This is basically my week again…only different surgery on the stomach…I’ll update you later…   ****************************************************************************     I get tired–the kind of tired that makes your bones ache. Sometimes, I get grumpy too. Hey, don’t we all? In this ever-winding road of special needs parenting, I find myself often in a…

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Testing….

Hi there! Remember me? (don’t answer that…I’m beginning to feel a foreigner in my own land!)   So, here’s the current score. School District: 5, Jack: 3. It’s looking rough out there. His IEP was completed a few weeks ago. Because he turned 6, he has to be “transitioned” from the developmental delay label to…

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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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Hospital Homebound

School. It’s happening around here. Some of the counties near where we live have already returned to recess, brown bag lunch, and smiling teachers. We…start Monday. Well, my daughter starts Monday. My friend’s children start Monday. Jack. Not so much. See, we qualified for Hospital Homebound (HH). Basically, this is a school within a school….

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The Bubble Bursts…

Sometimes, I lose my words. Like someone popped my beautiful bubble that I worked so hard to get right. Or I feel like the sky is closing in on me. Actually, I feel like I’m the kid with the black cloud that only rains on me. (Pity party, table for 1?) So many times, on…

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Labels

    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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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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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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