A few months ago my autistic, but otherwise extremely healthy child was denied life insurance. I was shocked and confused. When Cooper was born, in preparation for college, Jamie and I started a savings plan for the him that could be converted into dollars for college tuition. Smart right?! Recently, I received a letter in the mail that notified us that Cooper was denied coverage. I was irate. Autism is not a death sentence. My son is healthy. He has no medical conditions. An At-Risk Life After following up I…
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Parenting a child with special needs is so much more than helicopter parenting. It is never taking your shoes off, being ready to run, casing every room, knowing every exit and danger, being drenched in sweat, never sitting, searching your child’s body for marks or bruises, up all night worrying, parenting. It consumes me at times. And deep down I worry that it is destroying me. It’s not like it happened overnight. It was an evolution. I am a pretty chill person. My kids fall and I wait for the…
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My favorite topic to blog about! I’ve been noticing a trend. Every morning for the past few weeks I wake up to dozens of emails from parents looking for hope, help and guidance. I TOTALLY UNDERSTAND. I did the exact same thing when Cooper was younger. I would stay up late…usually after some sort of meltdown or a particularity hard day. And I would search for a blog where the child reminded me of Cooper. And I would reach out. And in a really weird way I would feel guilty…
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A few days ago I shared a letter I wrote for my son Sawyer. You can read it HERE. It was a toughie to share. It was brutally honest. It was real. And I really put myself out there. I purged every ounce of worry and self-doubt that I have about raising an autistic child alongside a typical child. Let’s get something straight. Cooper is an amazing little boy. He is funny and sweet and brings more joy than I can put into words. But…it’s different for me. I am…
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Parenting is hard. I think we can all agree on that. You are raising a tiny little human from birth to adulthood without an instruction manual and silently praying they turn out sane and happy. Now imagine if that tiny little human has a diagnosis of some sort. Autism. Cerebral Palsy. Traumatic Brain Injury. The diagnosis could be physical, emotional or neurological. It could be obvious. Or maybe it’s invisible to the outside world. Scary right. You aren’t a doctor. Or a therapist or a physiologist. There is no instruction…
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My little peanut, Today is your fourth birthday bud. How can that be? I look at you running and jumping with your friends and it’s hard for me not to cry. You are amazing. I am so proud to be your mom. I need you to know that. I want to tell you a few things. I know you won’t understand them now. And that’s OK. But someday, when mom is old and grey, I want you to read this letter. I want you to know I am sorry. And…
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Before my son was diagnosed with ASD I would frantically search out stories, blogs and articles of hope. Stories where it turned out NOT to be autism. Stories where instead of autism the child was actually deaf. Or allergic to gluten. Or whatever. These stories had happy outcomes. I did this because the stories of autism-to-life scared me to no end. I wasn’t ready yet. Then he was diagnosed and even more ferociously I searched for stories were the child was cured. The child had autism and the parents started…
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I shared a video last night on Facebook and I can’t believe the overwhelming support I’ve received.Thank you to every single person that messaged me or left me a comment. Just reading the words, ‘I understand,’ is more therapy than I can describe. Knowing that people out there understand is amazing. It makes me feel less alone. So, what was the event that caused my crash? Well, we had an evaluation for Cooper yesterday at an autism center. I am looking for options that will replace public education. I am…
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Hey all, One question I am continuously asked is what kind of diapers we use for Cooper. He is a big boy weighing in at 60 lbs. He currently wears a size 7 diaper. Cooper’s diapers are covered by his Medical Assistance. As far as I understand, and this may vary by state, a child with an autism diagnosis who is covered under medical assistance gets free diapers after the age of four. That’s what I was told. We had to figure this out for ourselves. Meaning a fellow parent…
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I am sitting here thinking about our relationship and about how much I love you. And how I rarely see you. We joke that it’s because life is so busy. We are in our thirties and have jobs and babies. We are in that stage of life I guess. We are always saying that this is the month that we will finally find the time to get together. And when this month passes we will laugh via text and joke about how someday soon we will have more time. One…
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