Raising kids with special needs is hard than I ever imagined it would be. In 2002 and 2015 Chuck and I adopted babies with special needs. Both were drug and alcohol exposed. One would later be diagnosed with autism. In 2010 I gave birth to our youngest child, Apollo, who was born with a double aortic arch, a rare congenital heart defect. Come read my stories and share in our heartbreak and triumph as we raise children with special needs.
Meet Frodo, Mordecai’s future service dog. Frodo is an eight-week old labradoodle puppy who we will be training ourselves. Why a service dog? Chuck and I have been discussing the idea of getting Mordecai a service dog for a year or two (ever since I found an organization that trains service dogs specifically for people …
Our three kids in junior high. Today is the first day of school for my traditionally educated children. Our family now has: two 8th graders, one 7th grader, two 5th graders and a 1st grader. Yesterday was a chaos filled day of rushing from one school to another. Whoever makes decisions about these things apparently …
This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #BTSwithHP #CollectiveBias It’s that time of year. Like it or not, I am planning our upcoming homeschool year. In theory this would be the Easiest Year Ever. Enoch will be headed off to Running Start so it is just Kalina I need …
Using Technology to Homeschool with Hearing Loss Read More »
Hey friends, I’m taking a bit of time off to spend with my family. I will be re-posting a few of my most popular posts until I return. I hope you enjoy them! Consistency is the key to good parenting, am I right? Set limits, and keep your children within them. Have clearly defined rules, …
Sunday we dropped our son with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder off for three weeks of summer camp. Three weeks of summer camp for typical kids. Long breaks from school are hard on my son. The security and sameness of routine at school help organize his thinking. Try as I might to follow a routine here …
Yesterday this boy turned six years old. I reposted his birth story on Facebook yesterday and didn’t even have it in me to re-read it. It seems so hard to believe. The last six years have been hard. I have experienced more stress, more fear and less sleep than I ever have in my life. Apollo has …
We’ve reached a new low in parenting. It’s called Pay Your Teen to Shower. Here’s how it works: Start with one oppositional teen who refuses to shower. Set up a shower schedule, in our case: Wednesday and Saturday. Lay out clear expectations: Teen must: wash hair, get body clean, use deodorant, put on clean clothes. If …
Sometimes I don’t even know where to begin. You know how frustrated I was with the 18-month wait for his first visit to Autism Center, the following visits, canceled visits, and visits where we just talked while he played on an iPad (provided by the Autism Center). They won’t do an autism eval because he has …
You’ve heard of extreme sports, extreme couponing and extreme makeovers…Well Chuck and I are now practicing something we call Extreme Parenting: The Choose Your Battles Edition. Now, as a parenting philosophy we believe in regular (and early bedtimes), teaching children to obey, teaching them to show respect for their elders and authority figures. We believe in …
Leaps and Bounds: Sleep Disorder Progress Leaps and bounds. That is the only way to describe Apollo’s current social and emotional growth right now. When Apollo was a baby with a mysterious, undiagnosed illness, I worried a lot about his social and emotional development. Having adopted children with special needs, who we went overboard with …
