I am super excited to be guest blogging today over at Easter Seals. Please check it out HERE – Easter Seals provides resources and services for both kids and adults with disabilities, and I am proud to be a part of it. Easterseals.com Blog.easterseals.com
Sharing Stories of Parenting the Special Needs Child Around the World
I NEED YOUR HELP and I WANT TO SHARE YOUR STORY Parents, I need your help with an important project, looking at special needs parenting from a global perspective. The purpose and focus of this project will be to address the day to day life of raising a young child with special needs. It…
I Want My Kids to Think I Matter
I want my kids to actually think that I matter in the world, day to day. Not the grand scheme of how much they love and adore me (because of course that goes without saying, most days), but to actually take a minute and think “Yeah, that Mom lady sure does a lot for this…
50 Years Ago Today
Fifty years ago today my Mom sat rocking in a little house, and waited for me to be born. I’m sure waiting and wondering how all of this was going to turn out and what the future would hold for both her and for me. My Mom must have been quiet and worried, and full of…
Growing Up: Transitions and Disability
I have been sitting through meetings these last few weeks to plan the transition of my daughter to middle school. All is going well, and everyone seems to be on board with the plan. But as I sit there at the big table, I fight back my fears and try to sit tall in my chair and…
What I Wish I Knew When I Was A Grad Student At University of Chicago, And What I Wish I Could Teach Students Now
I clearly remember every feeling I had when I started Graduate School at University of Chicago (School of Social Service Administration). Mostly a very strong feeling that everyone around me was smarter, had a clearer path, and a better foundation than I did. I was nervous about being “enough” for the the caliber of people…
Since You’ve Been Gone: A Letter to my Mom
Dear Mom, It goes without saying that I miss you so badly my heart hurts, and I cannot believe still to this day (three years later) that when I pick up the phone to call, you will not be there. Some days I can deal pretty well with this, but others I just ache…
Do Special Needs Parents Ever Get A Day Off
I want to take a day off, I really do. I want to sit back on the couch, relax, basically just not get up for awhile. I want to be able to rest and do nothing, and to be ok with that. But for some strange reason I never do, and I actually feel…
Teaching Kids to Appreciate What They Have
I spent a very special day in Chicago yesterday with my daughters. We were celebrating my ten year old daughters making it through a whole year after her intensive surgery to lengthen her tendons and to replace her hips. It has been a long, very hard, very painful year for her, and I thought…
The super hero flexibility of the special needs parent
I would not say I am a particularly flexible person, in the physical sense. Can’t quite remember my last back bend or splits – but it was definitely sometime in my early childhood. Yet, people are always commenting on my flexibility, my patience, and my ability to see the sunny side of the street. I…