Different Dream Living Blog
Nine Ways to Live Triumphantly…Audio Version
A few weeks ago Lisa Copen, founder of Rest Ministries, a website for chronically ill adults, asked me to participate in her Invisible Illness Week Web Seminar. She wanted me to encourage chronically ill parents who have special needs kids. I felt a little funny...
Critically Ill Kids and Military Vets Have What in Common?
A few weeks ago Claire Shackelford interviewed me about A Different Dream for My Child. While we talked, I thought about the double whammy military wives with special needs children deal with every day. My only desire was to encourage the moms as they care for their...
Nine Ways to Live Triumphantly with Special Needs Kids, Part 3
In the two previous posts in this series, I shared six commonalities observed in parents who live triumphantly with special needs kids. Today the last three ways will be discussed. As was mentioned before, don’t try to implement all of them at once. Select one, work...
Nine Ways to Live Triumphantly with Special Needs Kids, Part 2
In the first post in this series, I shared three commonalities of parents who live triumphantly with special needs children. Today we’ll look at three more. As was suggested in the previous post, don’t implement all the ideas immediately. Concentrate on one until you...
Isn’t Splendid Table a Cooking Show?
The other day I was exercising, trying to distract myself by listening to one of my favorite radio shows, Splendid Table with Lynne Rossetto Kasper. It wasn't working. Enter J. J. Goode But when her guest, food writer J.J. Goode, read his essay about single-handed...
Nine Ways to Live Triumphantly with Special Needs Kids, Part 1
Life as a parent is wearing. Life as the parent of of a special needs child is especially wearing. The specter of life as a perpetual care give and decision-maker can be overwhelming. But the parents I interviewed for A Different Dream for My Child lived joyfully...
Why I Wrote a Different Dream
Since A Different Dream for My Child was released, readers have been asking what motivated me to write it. To answer that question, I'm adhering to a lesson I learned as the parent of a special needs child: do not reinvent the wheel unless it is absolutely necessary....
Choosing Thomas
For parents with a prenatal diagnosis indicating a fatal birth defect, there are dozens of questions and no easy answers. If your unborn baby has received such news, I am so sorry. I have no answers for you, but hope this post and video will help your family in the...
NICU Parents and PTSD: Could This Be You?
NICU parents and PTSD are a combination no one wants to acknowledge. But as this post shows, the duo is alive and kicking in many, many parents.
The Survivor Challenge: How to Handle a Healthy Kid
When a child survives a serious illness, life is good again, right? Of course it's good, but most likely it isn't perfect since raising a survivor comes with a number of potential challenges. In this post, we'll identify some of those challenges and the typical ways...