Where Advocacy, Special Needs Parenting, & Life Collide
Notes on Life: When Life Throws you Curveballs
Special Needs Parenting – Learning to Dodge Curveballs
Children with special needs only add some zing to the curveballs of life … really!
Over the last couple months, the Moodys have dealt with one curveball after another – an aspect of special needs parenting, and life, that is sometimes hard to deal with.
On the heels of our victory (announced in my post on Victories and SetBacks and the Cost of Epilepsy) as Logan was able to come off of one seizure medicine, today he had several small break through seizures, leading us back into seizure-land, part of the adventure of living with Epilepsy. And you know what? It kind of sucks.
Just being honest.
It does.
But it reminded me of this post, started back when times were just a bit tougher and I felt like we were literally dodging one curveball after another and trying to make peace with everything that happened just felt more difficult than it was worth.
During the Storms, Special Needs Parents Can Learn to Find Themselves
In recent weeks, as we dealt with Logan’s re-emergence of active seizures and my own husband’s hospital stay, as well as the flu bugs that always make life fun, I was reminded of something simple yet powerful.
When you have children with special needs, you are often hit one after another with some news or another.
If you allow those diagnoses, those setbacks, to hit you one after another, and you don’t catch them and try to deal with the fallout, you are asking to be overwhelmed. When you don’t dodge the questions that will try to hamper your quiet moments–those ‘what-ifs’ that make sleep difficult at best–you are asking to be knocked out by the circumstances.
These ‘curveballs’ that we deal with are very real, all-encompassing moments of our lives. They mold us and change us, challenge us and sometimes, overwhelm us. But they are an essential part of life. Just as moving past them is a necessary part of life too.
Life, and time, has left me more able to cope with having children with special needs, with having a husband with additional health needs, with a life full of challenges. But not always.
As I am quick to point out … I’m not perfect. Sometimes life overwhelms me. But living, isn’t felt in the moments that overwhelm us, but in the moments that define us. When we are overwhelmed, we have an opportunity. To reach inside ourselves, move beyond the situation, and live beyond it.
And when you move beyond them, you have defined yourself. As more than a survivor. You’ve defined yourself as someone who can catch, deflect, and move beyond those curveballs of life.
What have you dealt with lately? Are you a special needs parent, trying to dodge what seems like one curveball after another? I invite you to share your story in the comments below.
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.
@KatrinaMoody
Wife; Mom to 3 guys w/ARS, autism, epilepsy & awesomeness; Advocate. Writer, Graphic Designer, Wordpress addict, social media nut. Site: http://katsmedia.com &
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hang on there, think about all the wonderful moments with your children that make it all worth it <3
This is a very heart-touching article. When my son is sick, I always try to put my brave face act and smile at him and say “Everything is gonna be fine”. That’s the hardest thing for me to do. Coz I feel that when the kids know we are weak, they go weak.