For 25 years, I dreaded August. Not because of my anxieties as a parent. But because of my anxieties as a teacher whose inclusive fourth grade classroom contained a high percentage of special need and at risk students. What made me anxious? Getting the classroom in order. New procedures that ate away at preparation and teaching time. Meeting students. Meeting parents. Not having the … [Read more...]
The Special Needs Grandparenting Tug of War
I will never forget the day my mother and mother-in-law played their first round of grandma tug-of-war. With our two-week-old son as the rope. The competition was held at my parents' home. We stayed there for a few weeks after our baby was dismissed from NICU before taking him to the remote corner of South Dakota where we lived 90 miles from the nearest hospital. My husband's mother, who lived … [Read more...]
May Again: Memories of the Good, the Bad, and the Lovely
It’s May again, my favorite month. Filled with birthdays, spring flowers blooming, cornfields awash in new life, turning the countryside in our state a most delicious green. May is also my least favorite month. Filled with wrenching separations, fading lilac blossoms and tulip petals blowing in the wind, not to be seen for 12 more long months. May, for me, is a tangled mess of … [Read more...]
Every Child Welcome: Cooking Up Special Needs Inclusion
Katie Wetherbee and I first met at a special needs ministry conference around 2010. She made a beeline to my book table and introduced herself. I attended Katie’s workshop and loved what she had to say. Before the end of the conference, we exchanged email addresses. We quickly became good friends. Maybe because we had a lot in common. We were both the parents of kids with special needs. We … [Read more...]
Every Life Matters When God Writes the Story
When I was a little girl, going shopping with my parents was a little scary. Because of Leon. Leon sat in his rusty wheelchair, clothed in rags, his body hunched and dirty, his smile toothless, holding a cup full of pencils for sale in his twisted hand. Most people walked right by, as if he wasn't there, though a few slipped a nickel in the cup and took a pencil. Leon scared me. But he didn't … [Read more...]
5 Ways to Recover from Caregiver Chaos
Two days before Thanksgiving of 2014, my life descended into caregiver chaos. Not because of a kid with special needs. But because of an aging parent with special needs. My mom, to be specific. Who came to stay with us until the end of the year to give her primary caregivers, my brother and his wife, a much needed break. That break nearly broke me because in quick succession... Mom had what we … [Read more...]