It’s often a dreaded adventure for foster and adoptive parents: summer travel. Or any travel, for that matter. Often, we wonder, is it worth it? Maybe we’re safer just staying home? We’re here to tell you, it is worth it. And here’s why…
It’s easy to let our children’s bad choices, extreme behavior, or special needs defeat us and make us want to give up. But something deep inside of me refuses to let his choices define his future!
*Editors Note- This is a guest post by Jessica Graham. She is a mother of three kids, all of whom have been adopted and two of whom have significant special needs. Her book Beautiful Paradox: Musings, Marvelings and Strategies of a Special Needs Parent is available on Amazon and is free September 15-16, 2016.
*Editor’s note- this post originally appeared in Mike’s column on Disney’s Babble.com. To read more of Mike’s posts on Babble click here.
You feel a mixture of anger and compassion. You want to scream at the child who is bullying yours, but also scoop your hurting child into your arms. In these sensitive moments, how do you respond when your child is the victim of bullying?
If we had a dollar for every time someone said, “Well, he doesn’t look like he has Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder,” we’d be millionaires. The truth is, our child’s disorder makes it hard to see the forest for the trees.
For the majority of the world, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) is misunderstood and often judged. But, there are powerful truths that can change your life when you understand, and embrace them.
In 2004 our lives, and parenting, changed forever when we realized we were parenting a child with special needs. To say it’s been a journey is an understatement. Part of the challenge has come from our encounter with professionals who fail to understand, or know how to handle, the special needs our children have.
Back in November, we posted a video on YouTube that helped teachers understand the traumatic pasts our children have come from. The video was a hit and was shared with hundreds of schools and teachers around the country. Today, we’re including the audio version in the latest episode of Honestly Speaking… Between Nicole and her husband, and us, we’ve been in hundreds of IEP meetings with our children’s teachers and principals. We’ve had many that went extremely well, and some that…well…didn’t! What we’ve learned from our experience is that teachers really do want to understand where we’re coming from, and why
It’s easy to take your child’s special need diagnosis personally. Often times, we work so hard to find solutions, or fix our children, that we miss the blessings in our new life journey. That was Bruce’s story. When his 8-year old son Bauer was diagnosed with autism, at a very early age, Bruce took it personally, even blamed himself. For years he tried to “fix” his son. He and his wife Bethany took Bauer to therapy 5 days a week, which was helpful, according to Bruce, but often in attempt to fix.
