(<= That’s me…I wish!) Welcome to *my* world! This is a place for folks to share some time together as well as my way of sharing what’s on my mind with you. I’d like for you to feel free to share your thoughts here, too! We’ll discuss all sorts of things, but one purpose of this blog is for those of us who have children or other people in our lives with special needs to share our lives, our experiences, our feelings, our questions and our wisdom with the world and get a little support from folks in similar situations. Another purpose of this blog is for people who deal with depression and anxiety issues (like me) to share their hills and valleys with others traveling that road. Maybe you just stumbled upon this blog and have something on your mind that’s bugging you and you need “someone to talk to” or a place to vent, ask for help, advice, etc. Anything goes here as long as everyone is kind and respectful of each other and the world around us.
I am (snif, snif) 45 years old, a Mississippi Gulf Coast working mother (jr. high/high school librarian/teacher) of 3 chickadees: two nearly grown girls (Brittany, 20 and Devin, 17) and a boy (Ryan, 14) who also happens to have Down syndrome. My husband of 25 years (yes, we were high school sweethearts!), Mark, works very hard, long hours for UPS and is as good as gold (actually, even better, IMO). He’s also a cycling nut (races mountain bikes, a road ride/race now and again, a major Lance Armstrong/Tour de France freak). All together we 5 take care of a house, a yard, a pool, lots of cars (yikes! teenage drivers!), school, jobs and we rebuilt our home after Hurricane Katrina with our own hands with very little outside help. We generally bob along like corks (maybe more like cocoNUTS…lol) in the ocean waves from day to day, trying to stay afloat and make it some bright and shiny shore where we can lie in the sun all day and live our dream lives of leisure. Oh! Snap! Back to reality: We’re just a normal (hehe…what a loaded word!) family. We try to live together in harmony, we have tiffs, we have drama, we laugh (quite a silly bunch, you’ll learn), we rant and rave, we argue about chores, we hug, we have dreams, we have fears but most importantly we love each other and we count our blessings so that in the end the blessings WILL add up to a higher number than the number of bumps in the road that we call “our life”.
Even as my son reaches into his teenage years, I still have questions and thoughts I would like to share and answers I need from other people in similiar situations. Please feel free to kick off your shoes, get comfortable and stay awhile. Don’t worry about protocol or whether you are “doing this the right way”…just share your stories, your questions, your thoughts, your advice, your observations and I am willing to bet that you will find a new world of friends and a comfortable place to hang your hat!
