Where Advocacy, Special Needs Parenting, & Life Collide
Causes | Kat’s Cafe | Helping One of Us
This week’s Cause is Personal – Help Save the YuckMouths
This Special Needs Family needs your help today–Can you Help?
“A family with seven kids is a whole other dynamic” – Lisa Gallegos
Here’s the thing, when you have a family with special needs children in it, life is challenging; when you have seven kids and some of them have special needs – life becomes so much more complex. Just ask Lisa Gallegos, mom blogger at Seven YuckMouths & Autism and the recipient of this week’s special needs “Cause of the Week.”
Why?
Well, like most things in life it’s a long story. One I’m not going to bore you with, but will address. Because the Gallegos’ could be any of us, and could be any special needs family caught between the cruddy reality of losing a job, a home, and the life you’ve made for your family –and the needs of that family.
This very unique special needs family needs help
Desperate financial situation, including the loss of the YuckMouth Daddy … er, Roy’s job, has meant that this family of amazing kids is being forced to move, to find a new home for the dog adored by their young Racer, who has autism and formed a close bond with the dog.
While things are slowly starting to move into place, this family is still lacking the funds needed to move, and for basic little things, like, oh, toilet paper. As Lisa says in a chat message “Heck, if it (any help) buys toilet paper for a month I will be a happy camper.”
If there is one thing I have learned by trying to offer Cause of the Week causes that you and I can relate to, it’s that when one of our own needs help, this community of extraordinary special families … unique in diagnoses and circumstances but alike in a common bond forged in desperate prayers and too many doctor’s visits … this community explodes into action to try and help one of their own.
Why should you help the YuckMouths?
These are the kids you’ll be helping, in the words of their mom, Lisa:
- “…From the top there is Nate….he actually has gone to live with his Biological dad. He couldn’t take it anymore, his sort of rebellious stage.
- Faith is 14 and just entered HS –trying to find her way…..emotional train wreck, making my hair gray by the minute.
- Lexie is 9 and my momma hen, takes care of Racer when she gets it and pushes his buttons when she forgets. She’s kind of a bully but loves her sibs.
- Logan is my ticking time bomb, destroyer of classrooms and being evaluated for ADHD. He’s my sweetheart with a hard shell.
- Then there is Racer, the one thing I don’t think you know about him is that he loves his sisters, the two younger ones….those are his buddies in crime .
- Then we have Justice, she’s 3 almost 4 and crazy, she’s the princess of the bunch. But she has speech issues and possible autism, but definately SPD (sensory processing disorder).
- Then my Monkey of the family is Kiera. She’s 1 and a feisty lil girl. She loves trying to kiss Racer cause she knows he hates it. Loves to dance and play and shout MOM over and over again.”
As you can see, this is one of *those* kinds of families … the ones you can relate to, the ones you can adore, the ones who could be you. And they are hurting right now.
One other bit of love from special needs and more blogger Caryn Haluska from Living with Logan:
“Lisa is a marvel.. she never lets ‘them’ see her sweat… until she gets home to the facebook and the twitter. Which is kind of entertaining, actually. We get to see what she WANTED to say!! The woman is fierce, and proves to her family and the world that she is willing to do anything.. ANYTHING… for her yuckmouths. She is an inspiration, indeed the very definition of dedicated momma committed to doing her everything for her family.”
This week, I have a challenge for you and a way to help Lisa and her family no matter what your own situation is like right now. You should know by now, if you’ve read up on Kat’s Cafe for any length of time, that my Cause of the Week announcements are usually more of a way to raise awareness about real causes about real people, real special needs families and causes. When we care about something, we don’t let lack of money stop us from helping.
Now, of course I’m including a Chip In widget for The YuckMouths —-and whether you can give $1 or $100 you should know that this family is worthy of your saved dimes and nickels. I wouldn’t list them if they weren’t. But even if you can’t give a dime, or if you want to do something more … I’ve compiled an action list of several additional things you can do without spending a dime (okay, I lied … a couple options might require spending money … so sue me! Um … not really–I’m counting my dimes and nickels too!)
Your checklist to help Save the YuckMouths:
- Go visit Seven YuckMouths & Autism and read, comment, explore Lisa’s site!
- While you’re there, Follow her blog! (We like to see the pretty numbers rise!)
- Check out Lisa’s side venture, Jars by Lisa, on her site, or on Facebook (Or you could buy one! Neat trivia fact: The puzzle pieces used on the regular jar designs are donated by families who have a loved one with autism!)
- Check out the amazing new children’s book put out by Roy, called The Adventures of One Sock
You can buy it direct from the publisher (& the YuckMouths will receive a greater portion of the profits) - Visit Roy’s site for his book, The Adventures of One Sock, and show him some support.
- Tweet (This post or one linked above), RT, or Follow: @lovelylicious (Lisa) @YuckMouthDaddy (Roy)
- Share to Facebook – to your wall or a Page or a Group … spread the word!
- Share to Google+ by giving the post a +1 (and typing in a comment to share it!)
- Comment!!!! I like to hear about your reaction to the Cause of the Week – what were you able to do to help?
Katrina Moody
Graphic Designer, Wordpress Addict, Blogger at Kat's Media & More
I'm a special needs parent before just about everything else in life, but also a passionate advocate for my three boys and husband, who all have a bit of awesomeness about them. Awesomeness = Axenfeld-Rieger Syndrome, Autism, Epilepsy, Dyslexia, Cerebral Palsy, and more. It all adds up to some awesome kids and an amazing family.
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You are incredibly generous to do this.
DH lost his job a year ago right after oldest started college and boy do I get the penny pinching.
Prayers are coming their way
As a very dear aunt was fond of saying, it’s what love does. I have great love and admiration for the special needs community and the great and amazing folks I’ve met within it. I’m not blessed financially, but I can help in other ways – and I think that is an important thing to share as well. We can’t always afford to give even a $1, but we can usually spare a moment for a prayer, We can take a moment to tweet or share a post. To Like a page, and to pass a link on. It’s what being a part of the community is all about, and I’m proud to belong to this community of amazing men and women, of special needs families.
I’m blessed to know you Kat! Thank you so much for helping!
Helping is something I am passionate about, my friend! IF it can help just a little then I’m happy to do what I can!
[...] to support, be able to resonate with, and which support the special needs community in some way. The Save the YuckMouths Campaign might be another Cause of the Week, but it’s a personal one, with personal costs to the [...]
“Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity.” ~ Henry Van Dyke
Wonderful quote! I might have to tweet it out sometime soon! Thanks so much for visiting Drema!
[...] you want to help out go to http://katscafe.org/2011/09/12/causes-kats-cafe-helping-one-of-us/#.Tm4eydTkHpU and click on the the “Chip In” box at the bottom of the [...]