Reading has played an invaluable role in my healing since navigating the loss of our 3 year old daughter, Stevie. I was able to retreat from the world that overwhelmed me into pages and pages filled by those who had found just the words to capture the jumbled feelings of my heart. I felt seen and understood and less alone. These b[...]
Stevie's arrival into our family seemed to also birth a softness and selflessness in both the boys. For the first time in their young lives, I watched Wes and Sawyer fill with the overwhelming need to put her happiness and comfort before their own. As a parent, this was the most magical maturation and transformation to witness. Wh[...]
*List of resources and my Trichotillomania (hair pulling) timeline can be found at the end of this post. I sit down at my laptop and open a new word document. My hands slowly pull away from the keyboard and I stare at the blinking cursor on the screen in front of me, wondering where to begin telling this story. Do I begin in[...]
Mary Susan McConnell is a gem of a human and has given me the great honor of being a guest on her podcast for a second time. In The Mama Bear Podcast, Mary Susan has created a platform for parents of kiddos with special needs and super powers to share their experience and their unique voice in a safe space--the purpose: reminding ea[...]
Parenting, for Ben and me, has been experienced in phases—peaks and valleys... I look back on this photo of the boys and me, taken several years ago, and I’m reminded of the deep deep trench we were in at this time. You wouldn’t know that from looking at this photo. Pictures capture a moment in someone’s life, often con[...]
*Names have been changed to honor privacy. Miss B: You realize that he is an amazing kid, right? Me: Aww, thank you so much! I ruffle Sawyer’s sweaty hair and smile back at his preschool teacher. The same preschool teacher who wrapped her arms around me three years earlier when I was trapped in the defeated and[...]
The Kissing Hand. By Audrey Penn. Have you read it? It’s a sweet story about a mommy and boy raccoon getting ready for the first day of school. The mommy gives the child a tender kiss in the middle of his hand and reminds him that any time he feels sad at school, he need only open up his kissing hand and his mommy’s love will p[...]
