Challenge Accepted!

This 4 letter word has more power than I’d like to admit.  It rules our world! William’s tone is relentless. It fluctuates from hour to hour despite medications and well-planned routines. Everything impacts his tone…

William is smart! Kernicterus impacts the part of the brain called the Basal Ganglia which mostly impacts movement. We have always been told that his intellect is likely intact. His learning is delayed because he…

Life has been crazy. I’ve wrestled with sharing my personal story publicly, I question peoples’ interest in my story, my time has been scarce and I’ve been trying to meet the demands of parenthood and…

After finding out that the van we had ordered likely wasn’t coming quickly, if at all, we went on a hunt for yet another option. It was a Friday when I was told and that…

As I was waiting on my delayed flight home from Toronto, I was feeling very excited to get home to see my kids. While boarding the plane, I recognized a gentleman from our community. We…

Travel is something that currently doesn’t really exist for William, but it does exist for the rest of us. We don’t travel a lot and I wouldn’t call our travel “vacation.” Our travel is limited…

Lately things have been a rollercoaster. I find myself inspired to write but I find myself second guessing the realities of the content. I look into my little boy’s eyes and my heart aches for…

It would be very easy for me to focus on all the daily hurdles that exist in my world of parenting a boy with exceptionalities. There are so many triggering events every single day that…

Over the years self care has evolved, changed, shifted and been non-existent. Self care has often felt selfish, exhausting, overwhelming but now…it feels sacred. No matter where I am at with self care, it is…

I have had many dear friends through the different seasons of my life and I’m acutely aware that in my current season, it takes a warrior to stand by my side. Despite my recent decision…

In the early years on our farm we adopted some goats and a livestock guardian dog, Rosie, to protect them and our girls. This was a huge learning curve for us city slickers. Rosie is…

After months of appointments, fittings and trials, William’s hearing aids had arrived. We booked the final appointment to head down to Victoria to have them set just right for him. We didn’t get anything particularly…

While I was pregnant with William, Bear and I decided to move. After losing our daughter we both felt suffocated living in Victoria. We were both born and raised there, had an amazing friend group,…

It was never an option to send William to a regular public school. With the challenges that William faces every day, I honestly couldn’t imagine sending him to school. Likely, he would be at home…

When William was an infant, we started early intervention after being warned by professionals that children with Dystonic Cerebral Palsy can develop a variety of different issues that require surgical intervention. Our early intervention program…

About 7 years ago I started a battle that I was not going to back down on. William had been in the hospital countless times and one day I just said enough is enough. My…

There will always be things I’d like to hear from William. But I have learned that if I listen with more than my ears, he will tell me everything I want – and need –…

My oldest, my friend, my sensitive soul and the human I want to be like when I grow up. Mimi Pie is her nickname and I’m not sure how she got it. Occasionally we call…