I got another story published today so it's time to celebrate. The story is entitled "The Last Threads of Denial" but there are many invisible threads that still entangle me. I dance around around issues, unable or unwilling to face the truth; I worry whether my story told the whole truth or if I ...
TWO JELLYFISH
Write City published my story today and I'm beyond thrilled because although it took me two tries, it was accepted. This is an excerpt from the first email I received: "We appreciate you letting us take a look at this story for possible publication in The Write City Magazine. Usually we’ve got a straight up YES ...
Staying the F Home
My brave grownup kid.. Over a month ago, I flew home from a visit with my daughter, with tentative plans to meet her and her family in South Dakota this summer. We’d visit Mount Rushmore! I was imagining what it would be like when everything changed a few days after I got home. A month has ...
FORGET ABOUT IT!
I DON"T NEED NO JOB! A few months ago, Jessica said she wanted a job. Rene, her support coordinator, began the process for her. He contacted Vocational Rehab, and after a bunch of mishaps, we got the paperwork completed and started the process. Today, after numerous trips to Voc Rehab, I picked up Jessica at her ...
It’s the same but different.
Even though Jessica lives in the group home, she comes home on the weekends, usually for two nights, sometimes one. Last Saturday, after I picked her up at the group home, she got in the car and as usual, asked, "Can we go shopping?" But something about the way she looked gave me a bad feeling. ...
Smacked in the face?
Is that how I felt thirty-one years ago, when we sat in that cold room, meeting with the specialists and listening as they gave us their “final ruling” on Jessica? Maybe. As I wrote my memoir and recalled what happened over the years, I realized the things I’ve never forgotten are the emotions I experienced.… Continue reading Smacked in the face?
0Broken Brain

When the kids were little, we'd get questions about what was wrong with Jessica from Sarah and Alia's friends. Maybe a lot of them didn't have interactions with a mentally handicapped kid. At first glance, Jessica didn't appear to have anything wrong with her. In fact,she was really cute. So were the other two. But ...
“You Shouldn’t Have To Struggle!”
Rene, Jessica's support coordinator was talking to me as I held the phone against my ear listening to his reassurances. I felt the tears welling up in my eyes. The crying was about to begin for the fifth time that day. "I just want her to be okay and when I took her to my new ...
Is everyone chasing normal?
I just read an interesting article on another blog I am following. It's http://bloom-parentingkidswithdisabilities.blogspot.com, a children's rehabilitation hospital in Canada. I started reading the posts on this blog, one after the other. It felt like I had landed in familiar territory. These were MY people. But let me return to the article. The author was discussing how parents ...