We are Thankful for You

And then it happens….one day you wake up and your in this place. This beautifully loud, exhausting, perfect place. You look around and see that you’re a mom with three boys. Three boys who are exactly the people they are supposed to be. No different. No less. You’re in the place where everything feels right. A place full of trains, dancing, Pokémon cards, hockey, and little boy kisses. You made it. Your heart is calm. Your days are bright. Your thoughts are positive. Your vision is clear. And the love.…

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Our Life is No Different Than Yours

Our life is no different than yours. Not really. I have three boys. One is 8. He doesn’t say much. But he’s always listening. He hears everything. One is six. He never stops talking. He seems to never be listening. Not ever. And the baby, well, he never stops moving. He really loves kids. And fly swatters. And crackers. Our house is loud. And so cluttered. Our toilets all need to be scrubbed. Every counter seems to be sticky. We can’t keep up with the dishes. We start the dryer…

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A Life of Gratitude

It takes a lot of practice and work to live a life of gratitude. It’s sitting in your darkest hours and deciding to be grateful for the experience. My husband and I decided at the beginning of our marriage that we would live a life of gratitude. There have been some hard days where we simply talked about being grateful for breathing. There have been crazy days where we were grateful for silence. November is the month where we are the most grateful. We are grateful for the March of…

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The Therapists Who Take Care of Us

I have always been the caregiver. When I was little, it was for my younger sister. When I met my husband, it was for him, and still is. When we got pregnant with mason, it just came naturally. I went to every doctors appointment, took my prenatal vitamins, tried to eat healthy. I continued to work out and took care of myself, for my buddy that was growing bigger by the day. When he was born, he was perfect. The first time I saw him he looked exactly how I…

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The Therapist Who Helped Me See My Boy

I want to thank and honor my son’s first speech therapist, Elizabeth. She, with one sentence, gave me the strength and hope for this journey we are on, and even though she isn’t our speech therapist anymore (he goes through the school district now that he is four), I replay what she said to me often. Sometimes daily. Sometimes multiple times a day. She helped me see my boy. The amazing boy he is. And not just an imaginary “what if” doom and gloom version of his life. One sentence…

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I had Expectations

I read a quote today on Pinterest while I was hiding in the bathroom for five minutes listening to the chaos of my life outside the door. Babies crying. Kids arguing. Jamie babbling about how I have too many shoes. You know. Life. The quote said something like…sometimes we create our own heartbreak through expectation. Now if that ain’t just the honest to God truth. Expectations. We all have them. We all set them. With adulthood, marriage, parenting, holidays, even our careers. We have them because we are human. I…

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Thank you Mom for Giving me Strength

To the best grandma and mother, Thank You!  Thank you for taking your two Autistic grandchildren once a week for 3 years so I could have a break. A break to recompose myself. A break to have a date night with my husband. A break to go to Walmart without screaming kids. A break to sleep. A break from being a special needs mom for a few hours. I could go on and on about the breaks I get to have thanks to you! Thank you for being the grandma…

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I’m Thankful for the Way You Take Care of Us

Meet Ted. His name suggests exactly what you’d think it does. A simple guy. A good ole boy. A guy who can fix your brakes or loan you his trailer. A guy who chops wood and knows how to do drywall. A guy whose humor is subtle, but hysterical if you catch it. A guy who loves any meal you cook for him. A guy who loves to hunt, but rarely gets to go. A guy with a strong handshake and even stronger integrity. A quiet guy, but great conversationalist.…

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What Color Shirt Was He Wearing?

The scariest moments of my life happened tonight. On a Monday in November. A normal day. A dark night. Not too cold. Sawyer left the house to play at 4:17 pm. I didn’t pay attention to what he was wearing because I was unloading the dishwasher and feeding the baby. We had just finished an argument about Pokémon cards. I told him he couldn’t take them out of this house. He disagreed. I yelled. He yelled back. So honestly, I breathed a sigh when he left. Silence. It had been…

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I am Thankful for the Most Amazing Uncle

My name is Corie and I am thankful for the most amazing uncle. I am the mom of two boys with one on the spectrum. My little guy was diagnosed “non verbal” and “low functioning” at the age of three. His name is Dante. He is now 12 and boy is he a firecracker. I would like to give a shout out so to speak to his Uncle Shane…AKA “Uncie”. A quick background on this “Uncie” character. Uncie is my oldest son’s father. So strange sounding but bare with me.…

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