Autism, DIPG, and the Unbreakable Bond of Siblings

An autism diagnosis for my son, Jackson, nearly nine years ago. A brain cancer diagnosis of DIPG for my daughter, Monroe, just weeks ago……. I panicked in the small emergency room nurses break room when it happened. No, I want to just take her home. Let’s pretend this never happened. This can’t be happening. It isn’t true, she’s only seven. I needed a moment to say all the things that weren’t helpful before I could process the diagnosis that was being handed to me in a suitcase with a weight…

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What is Normal?

When I became pregnant with my first child in 2007, I had no idea the journey I was about to embark on.  I felt that I would be like every other mother I knew and have that ‘normal family’. It didn’t turn out that way and honestly, I could have never imagined the hurdles that we would have to go through over the last 11 years. My daughter was born in 2008, health and happy.  For the first two years everything was perfect. One day, I noticed a small tremor…

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