bshort1968

Grief Within the Beauty

Grief is a part of this journey. You can be grateful for the child you are blessed with and grieve things that will never be. There is beauty beyond the grief and grief within the beauty.

Celebration Minus Expectation

I threw away the manual on milestones and expectations for Emily’s progress and achievements. I started to practice acceptance and release control.

Glass Children, Mom Guilt, and GRACE

Glass child is a term used to describe the sibling of a person with a disability. The word glass reflects that often others see right through the typical sibling and focus only on the person with the disability.

Don’t Tell Her She’s Just a Van

Just in case you ever get a chance to meet her, please don’t tell her she is “just a van”. She believes she is so much more.

Wonderful But Not Restful Trip

Friday morning came too soon. I woke up exhausted. Emily was to go to school on the bus. I knew there was a 50/50 chance the bus would not show up and it did not. I loaded everything into my car and off to school we drove. I started crying on the way. I was tired and had reached a point of breaking down. At that moment, I realized that the trip had been fun, but it was also a lot of work. Todd and I had cared for Emily for the past 18 days with no help. She had trouble sleeping. She had panic attacks during every aspect of hygiene from bathing to toileting. She refused to help with transitional walking. My hips and body were sore and stiff from long hours sitting in the car and sharing a bed with Emily. My self-care had taken a back seat during the trip and I was feeling the results.

Friendship and Accountability

Losing weight was always easy but keeping it off and maintaining the loss was the difficult part. It took me time to learn the secret to keeping off the weight. The first was learning to accept my emotions and allowing them instead of trying to stifle or suppress them. The second was learning that IContinue reading “Friendship and Accountability”

Six Days On The Road…Fourteen to Go

We are six days into a three-week road trip across more states than I have been able to calculate. I did purchase a scratch-off map from Etsy to track but I have not had the energy at the end of the day to plot. The days have been long for Emily. She is happy toContinue reading “Six Days On The Road…Fourteen to Go”

Hard Doesn’t Mean Don’t

We will face obstacles of access with Emily and her wheelchair. We will be in places with restrooms that are not adequate to meet her needs. Lifting and transitioning Emily will be physically tough on us both. We will have to help her manage her anxiety and fear as we take her out of her routine and comfort zone.

Ripple the Ripple

This past week I started The 20 Ripple Challenge. I do most of the things that the challenge required, and daily random acts of kindness sounded great. How can that sound bad? While this is posting on day 8, and it is NOT too late to join. If you are interested in spreading some kindnessContinue reading “Ripple the Ripple”

Bumps in the Road and Holding Hands

All my husband wanted for Father’s Day was to go camping for the weekend. He planned the location and we got to prepare for the trip. We would have Emily with us so we decided to take the trailer. It was also going to be warm so having the AC inside the trailer would beContinue reading “Bumps in the Road and Holding Hands”