That’s not true. I didn’t have any choice in the breaking part, so it wasn’t exactly brave because it just happened. The brave part comes in right here: I’m telling you all about it. I’m learning a lot about it in the Intensive Outpatient program that I have stepped down into after my inpatient stay …
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This year we started middle school (and high school) and it’s a whole new ball game. I’ve been going to back to school teacher conferences for years, and I can’t remember the last time that one of them scared me. This year I was terrified. As I drove to the middle school, my stomach was …
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It’s cake season at our house. For most normal families, September means back to school, the beginning of fall, winding down from summer. At my house, it means: CAKES! I always said that I would never be “that mom”—that one that made birthday cakes and Halloween costumes. I learned a valuable lesson there. Don’t say …
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This is another post that I wrote at the very beginning of the summer. I have edited it significantly for chronological context and ease of reading, but I want my readers to know that my mindset at the time of actually writing this post was months ago. Last year wasn’t a good year. That’s not …
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I wrote this post early in the summer but didn’t manage to publish it until now. I’ve added an update in italics at the end. I managed the unthinkable. I got my teenager to talk to me. (*gasp*) I know. I’m just as shocked as the rest of you. Now, to be fair, I don’t …
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This summer did not go as planned. Things rarely do—not just for parents with special children, not just for parents—life just has a way of doing its own thing. I have quite a few posts written that I wasn’t able to spend the time cleaning up and getting on the internet. After months of silence, …
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I’m reliving my past. When Yoshi was very young, we spent years searching for an answer (that we never found), Band-Aiding symptoms just to get through, and taking each day as it came. It was agonizing. The not knowing, the racing around, the endless stream of differing opinions. All of that was on top of …
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I saw something on Facebook recently where a mom of a child with severe autism was talking about the “last time”. Moms with normal (ha!) kids never know when that bedtime snuggle is the last, or it’s the last time you hold your little one in your lap. She was talking about how it’s different …
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April 2nd is World Autism Awareness Day. Call me biased, but it’s more important to me than breast cancer awareness, and that gets its own month and all the glory. Awareness, on its own, isn’t going to do much to help breast cancer. But being aware (and nothing more) could change everything for autism. People …
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I suppose I already knew it. I have a couple of friends who advocate professionally (which is amazing, all by itself!) It just didn’t hit home until I found myself in a position where I needed to advocate for the “other one” and I already knew what I was doing. I was grateful for the …
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