Great Special Needs Parenting Blogs

by jphilo | Apr 1, 2015 | Books and Resources, Different Dream, Special Needs Parenting

One of the best perks of being a special needs parent and blogger is reading other blogs and getting to know the people who write them. And thanks to DifferentDream.com’s Tuesday special needs link share, I’m finding more blogs to check out every week. This post highlights some special needs parenting blogs that I really enjoy. Here they are in no particular order.

Because I Said So Dawn is a single mother raising 6 active kids. None of them have special needs, but her writing is so hilarious it makes me belly laugh on a regular basis.
Jennifer A. Janes blogs about raising a daughter with multiple and difficult-to-diagnose special needs and about home schooling both of her daughters. Jennifer is also become a good friend, and she’s one of the most encouraging people I know.
Love That Max is the domain of Ellen Seidman. She’s been blogging about her son, Max, who has CP caused by a stroke at birth. I’ve been reading Ellen’s blog for years and it is consistently good. Read it once, and you’ll be hooked!
Ellen Stumbo blogs about faith and raising her daughters–one typical, one with Down syndrome, and one with cerebral palsy. She is one of the most transparent and honest bloggers around, and she’s my friend.
Finding Ninee has the best tag line ever: Boy is awesome. Mom is trying to be. The mom is Kristi Campbell. The son had autism. And the blog is always filled with humor, creativity, and some great participation opps for parents and bloggers.
Virtually a Teacher comes from Canada and is the brainchild of Chantale. She’s mother to 2 sons with autism. She homeschools her sons and creates some of the most amazing teaching tools on the web. And she offers them as free downloads much of the time.
Not Alone features a cadre of special needs parents who blog about parenting and faith. The blog also offers encouragement groups and a prayer wall for struggling moms and dads. Every time I visit this blog, I am greatly encouraged and hope you will be, too.

Your Favorite Special Needs Parenting Blogs?

Of course this list isn’t all inclusive. There are so many great blogs around. So give your favorites in the comment box. Thanks!

Do you like what you see at DifferentDream.com? You can receive more great content by subscribing to the quarterly Different Dream newsletter and signing up for the daily RSS feed delivered to your email inbox. You can sign up for the first in the pop up box and the second at the bottom of this page.

Jolene Philo is the author of the Different Dream series for parents of kids with special needs. She speaks at parenting and special needs conferences around the country. She’s also the creator and host of the Different Dream website. Sharing Love Abundantly with Special Needs Families: The 5 Love Languages® for Parents Raising Children with Disabilities, which she co-authored with Dr. Gary Chapman, was released in August of 2019 and is available at local bookstores, their bookstore website, and at Amazon. The first book in her cozy mystery series, See Jane Run!, features people with disabilities and will be released in June of 2022.

The Faith Inclusion Network Is a Special Needs Gift

by jphilo | Mar 27, 2015 | Books and Resources, Different Dream, Special Needs Parenting

The Faith Inclusion Network Is a Special Needs Gift

Last week I received a most amazing gift.
But I wasn’t the only person to receive it.
Karen Jackson, leader of the Faith Inclusion Network, gave this most amazing gift to around 20 people gathered together in a beach house.

The gift included this beautiful sunrise, which led Shelly Christensen, Lorna Bradley, and I to worship our Creator on a brisk morning.
But the sunrise was only a small portion of our gift.
The true gift was a Thursday spent with disability and special needs leaders from around the country.
Not just to speak at a conference…that came on Friday.
But not until we spent all of Thursday brainstorming and dreaming about how to encourage inclusion in faith communities.

My heart was so encouraged to sit with this group of people,
to look around the room and see their passion about
finding employment for adults with disabilities,
welcoming people with special needs into our churches and into our lives,
by doing ministry with them instead of for or to them.

Were your ears ringing when we talked about you, the caregivers?
When we discussed how to support parents of kids with special needs?
When we talked about the need for higher wages for those we pay to care for our loved ones?
Were your ears ringing?
Were your hearts pounding like mine was?

I wish you could have been there,
could have seen their compassion,
could have felt our excitement,
could have met these dear people
and come to count them as friends, as I do.

Eventually, I’ll post links to the TED talks and more about each speaker.
But for now, this silly selfie,
compliments of Dr. Jeff McNair,
when we were all lined up for a panel discussion
at the end of the Friday conference.

Top row: Jeff McNair, Stephanie Hubach, Lorna Bradley, Bill Gaventa, Anne Masters, Milton Tyree
Bottom row: Dave Morstad’s forehead, Jolene Philo, Erik Carter, Shelly Christensen, Mohammed Yousuf, Dan Vander Plaats

Not pictured: Jan Benton, Barb Newman, Karen Jackson

Were You at the Faith Inclusion Network (FIN) Conference?

If you were at the FIN conference, what was your favorite part? What did you learn? Who did you meet? Leave your comments in the box below!

Do you like what you see at DifferentDream.com? You can receive more great content by subscribing to the quarterly Different Dream newsletter and signing up for the daily RSS feed delivered to your email inbox. You can sign up for the first in the pop up box and the second at the bottom of this page.

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Jolene Philo is the author of the Different Dream series for parents of kids with special needs. She speaks at parenting and special needs conferences around the country. She’s also the creator and host of the Different Dream website. Sharing Love Abundantly With Special Needs Families: The 5 Love Languages® for Parents Raising Children with Disabilities, which she co-authored with Dr. Gary Chapman, was released in August of 2019 and is available at local bookstores, their bookstore website, and at Amazon.

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Isolation Is a Special Needs Parent’s Mean Girl

A few months ago, the folks over at The Caregivers Space asked me to co-host a bi-monthly special needs support group at their site. The post below explains why such support groups are so needed in our community.

Isolation whispers the same words in the ear of every special needs parent she finds.

“I’m your best friend,” she says as she cozies up to them in the dark hours of the night.

“You don’t need anyone but me,” she says.

“No one else cares about you,” she confides.

She shakes her head. “They don’t want to hear your story.”

“No one understands you,” she confirms.

“Your friends are too busy with their own kids.” She raises an eyebrow.

“They don’t have time to help you, so don’t ask.”

“If you say anything about how hard life is, they’ll say you’re a whiner,” she confides.

“They’ll say you should put on your big girl panties and be thankful your child is alive.”

Sleep-deprived, emotionally raw, spiritually depleted, and heartbroken special needs parents believe every word this self-proclaimed best friend says.

But we shouldn’t. Because in reality isolation–every special needs parents’ closest companion–isn’t our best friend.

Isolation is the ultimate mean girl.

How do I know? I know because isolation was the mean girl in my life for far too many years.

She was the mean girl during the nearly 3 weeks we spent with our newborn son in a NICU over 700 miles from home.

She was the mean girl when we brought our baby home to the tiny town where we lived, and she convinced me not to ask friends for help because, you know, they were busy with their families.

She was the mean girl for the next 4 years while our son endured countless medical procedures, tests, and surgeries until his esophagus began to function correctly, and we were too sleep-deprived for my husband and I to think straight and give her marching orders.

She was the mean girl when we moved to a different town. She told me to quit mentioning our son’s health history after someone poo-pooed me for being protective of our precocious toddler who looked perfectly healthy but still had significant health issues.

She was meanest of all when our young adult son’s diagnosis with PTSD caused by early medical trauma didn’t sit well with people, and they avoided our company.

But finally, I had my fill of isolation.

I kicked the mean girl out of my life by sharing our family’s special needs story in articles and here on my blog, www.DifferentDream.com. By writing books that offer support and resources to parents of kids with special needs. By joining Facebook groups for parents of kids with the same birth anomaly our son had.

And do you know what? Life is good without the mean girl keeping me to herself. Life is really, really good without isolation building walls between me and other parents who are walking the same path. Parents who understand the grief and the joys of raising kids with special needs.

But my heart hurts for parents still trapped by isolation. Raising kids with special needs is the most demanding and satisfying and holy work we will ever do. It’s work done best without negativity mucking things up. Which means we’ve got to band together and kick out the mean girls in out lives. Will you join me?

Do you like what you see at DifferentDream.com? You can receive more great content by subscribing to the quarterly Different Dream newsletter and signing up for the daily RSS feed delivered to your email inbox. You can sign up for the first in the pop up box and the second at the bottom of this page.

By

Jolene Philo is the author of the Different Dream series for parents of kids with special needs. She speaks at parenting and special needs conferences around the country. She’s also the creator and host of the Different Dream website. Sharing Love Abundantly With Special Needs Families: The 5 Love Languages® for Parents Raising Children with Disabilities, which she co-authored with Dr. Gary Chapman, was released in August of 2019 and is available at local bookstores, their bookstore website, and at Amazon.