About Me
Who am I? A daughter, a sister, a wife, a mother and a grandmother.
I am a mother to two beautiful, wonderful and very different children. My daughter Corey is my oldest child. She was in the gifted and talented program in school; has a Master’s Degree in Clinical Psychology; worked at Children’s Hospital for several years and now owns her own incredibly successful business, Ascend Learning Center. My son Travis was in the Special Needs program in school. He is currently living independently with supports.
Do I have other accomplishments? Sure. But none as important as my family. I always say that being a mother is my proudest accomplishment. And not just being a mom, but I think a good one.
Why write a blog? I have been through a lot of hard stuff in my life. But nothing as difficult as raising a child with special needs. Travis has been given countless diagnoses over the years. He was diagnosed with autism when he was eleven years old. He also suffers from chronic depression and anxiety. And he is angry and finds it difficult to manage his anger. I am writing this blog for a couple of reasons. My hope is that in sharing our stories, our successes and our failures, our wins and our losses, you the reader will come away with something. Maybe you can relate and you come upon some information that helps you through a personal situation. Maybe you do not have a child with special needs, but you walk away with a bigger heart. Maybe you already know me and you just get to know me better. And I am writing this blog at the strong encouragement of some special people in my life, my daughter and a couple of very close friends. They tell me that I am a good story teller. That I have a way of finding the humor in a situation even though it was the furthest thing from funny in the moment. Maybe writing this blog is part of my purpose. That you get something from reading it but I also get something from writing it. That maybe if I share it I don’t end up carrying the bulk of it alone.
Why read my blog? I do not have aspirations of having millions of followers and making millions of dollars. In all honesty I do not have a clue how any of that works. I have met many people on my journey. People that I have helped one at a time by sharing a story and an outcome. Our journey has been a long and winding road. Maybe in telling our story I will be able to straighten that path for one of you. Helping others makes me feel good. None of us knows how our stories end. But maybe we can build a community where we help each other get through what is happening now together. I am not an expert on children with special needs. I do not believe there is such a thing. If there was wouldn’t my son be well by now? Wouldn’t we have all the necessary answers? But I feel like I am the closest thing to an expert on Travis. You don’t even need to be a parent to enjoy this blog. I am sure we all have someone in our lives who has our heart and needs our voice.