My loves

My  loves
Our family

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

another for SN moms


moms tell their kids to wake up and get dressed in the morning. And they do it.

Special needs moms put on battle gear to get our kids ready to start their day.

Regular moms ask their kids if they brushed their teeth.

Special needs moms prompt, “Brush your top teeth. Brush your bottom teeth. Did you get the sides?
Open your mouth. My God, give me that toothbrush! You’ve left half your meal in there!”





Regular moms wave goodbye as their kids run off to catch the school bus.

Special needs moms get awesome door-to-door bus service for their child.

Regular moms know the names of all their friends.
Special needs moms know most of their friends by their username.


Regular moms judge other moms when kids have tantrums in stores.
Special needs moms say to themselves, “Hmm, I wonder which disability he has?”


Regular moms complain about driving their kids to sports and recreation classes.
Special needs mom grin and bear the weekly trips to tutors, doctors and therapists.

Regular moms’ kids have a teacher.
Special needs moms’ kids have a team.


Regular moms talk about accomplishments.
Special needs moms talk about skills, as in play skills, conversation skills, life skills, social skills and vocational skills.

Regular moms relax with their kids during the summer.
Special needs moms start their second job as home teachers, therapists and skills coaches.


Regular moms think accommodations refer to hotels.
Special needs moms have memorized the top 20 accommodations for their child.

Regular moms hope their child finds a good career.
Special needs moms are hopeful someone gives our child the chance to work.


Regular moms soak in the tub when they want to unwind.
Special needs moms consider a bathroom break a luxury.

Regular moms enjoy reading the latest best selling book.
Special needs moms should receive an honorary degree for all the disability books they’ve read.


Regular moms go out for dinner and a movie with their husbands every month.
Special needs moms have a date night with their husbands every…wait, what decade is this?

Regular moms complain their kids won’t eat their vegetables.
Special needs moms are so desperate we consider chicken nuggets to be a legitimate meat product
and throw in ketchup as a vegetable.

Regular moms’ kids go to play groups.
Special needs moms’ kids go to therapy groups.


Regular moms meet for a ladies night out.
Special needs moms get together at support groups and forums.


Regular moms have medical claim forms that fit in one file folder.
Special needs moms will tell you a small forest was cut down so we could receive our claims.


Regular moms think OT means overtime.
Special needs moms know more acronyms than a NASA engineer.

Regular moms complain their husbands sit on the couch while they do all the work.
Special needs moms…well how about that? Some things do stay the same!


Got more? Let’s hear them! Send your “regular moms versus special needs moms” to info@oneplaceforspecialneeds.com
Dawn VillarrealAbout the writer

Dawn Villarreal runs One Place for Special Needs, a national disability resource that lets you find local and online resources, events and even other families in your neighborhood. She is also moderator of Autism Community Connection, a Yahoo group for families in Illinois. Dawn has two awesome kids and strives for a day when communities can effectively reach out to support all special needs. Reprint permission granted by including: Reprinted with permission from One Place for Special Needs http://www.oneplaceforspecialneeds.com

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If you are an extraordinary Mom of a special needs child...this one is for you!

thanks to my friend colleen for this

This One Is For You

If you are an extraordinary Mom of a special needs child...this one is for you!


Mothers Lie

By Lori Borgman

Expectant Mothers waiting for a newborns arrival say they don't care what sex the baby is. They just want to have ten fingers and ten toes.

Mothers lie.

Every mother wants so much more.

She wants a perfectly healthy baby with a round head, rosebud lips, button nose, beautiful eyes and satin skin.
She wants a baby so gorgeous that people will pity the Gerber baby for being flat-out ugly.

She wants a baby that will roll over, sit up and take those first steps right on schedule (according to the baby development chart on page 57, column two).

Every mother wants a baby that can see, hear, run, jump and fire neurons by the billions.

She wants a kid that can smack the ball out of the park and do toe points that are the envy of the entire ballet class.

Call it greed if you want, but a mother wants what a mother wants.

Some mothers get babies with something more.

Maybe you're one who got a baby with a condition you couldn't pronounce, a spine that didn't fuse, a missing chromosome or a palate that didn't close.

The doctor's words took your breath away.

It was just like the time at recess in the fourth grade when you didn't see the kick ball coming, and it knocked the wind right out of you.

Some of you left the hospital with a healthy bundle, then, months, even years later, took him in for a routine visit, or scheduled him for a checkup, and crashed head first into a brick wall as you bore the brunt of devastating news.

It didn't seem possible.

That didn't run in your family.

Could this really be happening in your lifetime?

There's no such thing as a perfect body.
Everybody will bear something at some time or another.

Maybe the affliction will be apparent to curious eyes, or maybe it will be unseen, quietly treated with trips to the doctor, therapy or surgery.

Mothers of children with disabilities live the limitations with them.

Frankly, I don't know how you do it.
Sometimes you mothers scare me.
How you lift that kid in and out of the wheelchair twenty times a day.
How you monitor tests, track medications, and serve as the gatekeeper to a hundred specialists yammering in your ear.

I wonder how you endure the clichés and the platitudes, the well-intentioned souls explaining how God is at work when you've occasionally questioned if God is on strike.
I even wonder how you endure schmaltzy columns like this one-saluting you, painting you as hero and saint, when you know you're ordinary.
You snap, you bark, you bite.
You didn't volunteer for this, you didn't jump up and down in the motherhood line yelling,
"Choose me, God. Choose me! I've got what it takes."

You're a woman who doesn't have time to step back and put things in perspective, so let me do it for you. From where I sit, you're way ahead of the pack.
You've developed the strength of the draft horse while holding onto the delicacy of a daffodil.
You have a heart that melts like chocolate in a glove box in July, counter-balanced against the stubbornness of an Ozark mule.

You are the mother, advocate and protector of a child with a disability.
You're a neighbor, a friend, a woman I pass at church and my sister-in-law.

You're a wonder.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Hannah - feeling better

Hannah is feeling a lot better now...still coughing some. I think I got it worse than she did but that is good :) it felt good to get back to church today although it was weird this morning not to take Hannah. the nursing agency screwed up again and molly came in late so she stayed til we got home from church.
Her seizures are back to her "normal" ones. we have increased her klonopin again. usually that makes her really sleepy but it's almost like she is getting immune to it :( we don't have a neuro appt til June. the increase in all her meds is making her kinda drugged during the day just not sleeping like she usually does.
we saw the GI dr last week, I really like her. Hannah's weight was up to 39lbs! that is way too much for her small body :) She is only 40" tall and has a very small head. (on the wii fit board she is a perfect weight ) So, I took her to the peds office to get her official weight, 38 lb 14 oz :) so now we had to decrease her feeding even more. Waiting for a call back from her about adding some protein to her formula. She already added some extra fiber since she is afraid she's not getting enough. She asked about the hiccups and I told her she had only had 2 major episodes since we last saw her. I told her about her gtube site getting red a lot lately. She thinks it's stomach acid and is afraid with some other symptoms that her nissen might be loose or udone. She had ordered an upper GI study when we last saw her but because of the all the bad weather I never had it done, so its now scheduled for the end of may. She added pepcid to her meds to see if it helped, not sure what though LOL

Monday, April 19, 2010

Hannah is sick :(

Last week taylor got a cold and then becky got it..saturday morning I woke up with it and the nurse said hannah had a rough night. I had been planning on taking her to dr kyle's office for a weight check but ended up having her look at hannah....she said it is probably viral and gave us a scrip for cipro just in case. She had been running a high fever for her and her heart rate was in the 130's.
today she has a temp again and she doesn't want to cough..her lungs had been staying clear but the nurse said she sounds junky right now so she did an extra neb treatment...her cough is very hoarse and sounds really bad with a trach...she hasn't been this sick in a long time.
I am still coughing and congested too but taylor is finally getting better!

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Forget Me Not by Vicki Hinze


Forget Me Not
by Vicki Hinze

Summary:

A mother who cannot face her future.
THEIR ELUSIVE ENEMIES TOOK EVERYTHING. NOW THEY WANT MORE.

Crossroads Crisis Center owner Benjamin Brandt was a content man—in his faith, his work, and his family. Then in a flash, everything he loved was snatched away. His wife and son were murdered, and grief-stricken Ben lost faith. Determination to find their killers keeps him going, but after three years of dead ends and torment, his hope is dying too. Why had he survived? He’d failed to protect his family.

Now, a mysterious woman appears at Crossroads seeking answers and help—a victim who eerily resembles Ben’s deceased wife, Susan. A woman robbed of her identity, her life, of everything except her faith—and Susan’s necklace.

The connections between the two women mount, exceeding coincidence, and to keep the truth hidden, someone is willing to kill. Finding out who and why turns Ben and the mystery woman’s situation from dangerous to deadly. Their only hope for survival is to work together, trust each other, and face whatever they discover head on, no matter how painful. But will that be enough to save their lives and heal their tattered hearts?
A great suspense book that keeps you on your toes :) you will not want to put this book down...read it and find out the key...

Cover art:



Author Bio:

Vicki Hinze is an award-winning author of twenty-three novels, three nonfiction books, and hundreds of articles. Selected for Who’s Who in America in 2004 as a writer and educator, Hinze is active in Romance Writers of America and serves as a Vice President on the International Thriller Writers Board of Directors. Vicki lives in Florida with her artist husband, a retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel. Visit www.vickihinze.com to learn more about Vicki’s books, blogs, and writing programs.

Do you have any blogger friends who might like to participate other blog tours? Please direct them to the official WaterBrook Multnomah Blogging for Books site page at http://www.randomhouse.com/waterbrook/bloggingforbooks/.





http://waterbrookmultnomah.com/catalog.php?isbn=9781601422057



This was book was provided for review by WaterBrook Multnomah

Thursday, April 1, 2010

An Absence So Great Blog Tour


An Absence So Great

by Jane Kirkpatrick


While growing in confidence as a photographer, eighteen-year-old Jessie Ann Gaebele’s personal life is at a crossroads. Hoping she’s put an unfortunate romantic longing behind her as “water under the bridge,” she exiles herself to Milwaukee to operate photographic studios for those owners who have fallen ill with mercury poisoning.

Jessie gains footing in her dream to one day operate her own studio and soon finds herself in other Midwest towns, pursuing her profession. But even a job she loves can’t keep painful memories from seeping into her heart when the shadows of a forbidden love threaten to darken the portrait of her life.
This was a good book about looking at the things in your life that you may need to make changes. As Christians we all need to do this once in a while.
http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9781578569816

Author Bio:

Jane Kirkpatrick is an award-winning author of sixteen historical novels, including A Flickering Light, the first part of Jessie Gaebale’s story, and three nonfiction titles. Known for her unique insights into the exploration of community, family and faith of actual historical women, the Wisconsin native and her husband have called their ranch in Oregon home for the past 25 years.



Do you have any blogger friends who might like to participate in our Blogging for Books program? Please send them to this link to register: http://waterbrookmultnomah.com/blogging-for-books/





This book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group