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This is Advocacy
I have been thinking a lot about advocacy. What does it truly mean to fill your life with advocacy? As parents of autistic children, we spend hours upon hours advocating for our children. I often think of it as two sides of a brick wall. On one side, you have all the people you sit across from in different settings. On the other side, you are standing, holding the hand of your child. In this brick wall, one brick is missing. Through the hole, you try to use your words to explain a mountain of concepts you wish others innately understood. As you whisper through the missing brick, the wall…
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No matter how you are managing today, it’s ok
What I have learned
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Five things every special needs parent should hear
Are you walking into a new world of special needs parenting for the first time? Are you a few years in and finding things hard to manage right now? Or are you the parent who has walked this path and is now looking ahead at what services are there for your child’s future? Here are some gems of advice that I have received from others who have walked this path alongside me, before me, and some of my own. Advocacy can come in many forms. If you are the loud and proud mama or papa bear walking into an IEP meeting or evaluation asking all the questions and expecting answers…
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To the special needs parents who came before us.
When we roll into a new year in January or minds can drift to looking back at our choices over the last year and our goals for change in the new year. There is no doubt that 2020 will forever be one of the years we all can reflect on. In 2020 we became special needs parents and discovered both our children carried the medical diagnosis, autism spectrum disorder. When our children are diagnosed, we often hear that the words in no way changed who they are. The words on the paper provided a road to services and support they need. The words are only one small part of who…
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I have learned to appreciate, in our unique parenting journey, to soak in the rare and swift moments when things feel the way I imagined parenting would
Earlier this week, Nixon woke up around 5:00 a.m. crying. As I picked him up out of his bed, his long legs were freezing. The temperature in Phoenix has dropped, and he loves to sleep with just an overnight pull-up. He has four blankets on his bed but usually ends up sleeping on top of them. I carried him into our room, and he snuggled under the covers. This has happened a handful of times since he was a baby. Once he is awake, he does not go back to sleep. But this morning, he snuggled in, put his head in my arms, and went back to sleep. I felt…