A New Year...

Holy cow the holidays are OVER! I don't know about you, but I'm glad they are. While I love watching the kids' faces on Christmas morning, or the excitement in their eyes when we drive past loads of Christmas lights, for me it's a stressful time of year. Not only are the kids hard to shop for, but it's the time of family get togethers and celebrations and it takes A LOT of planning just to do these simple outings. I had a parent meeting today with our BCBA for my youngest and we talked about how for a neurotypical family of 4 (two adults two kids) to take a vacation to somewhere like Walt Disney World, it wouldn't be too difficult. Jut pick a time frame, purchase all the travel tickets required, and pack your bags and go! For a family like ours, I have to do so much research about how busy it is, what resources are available, what items are allowed where, how will the kids do on an airplane, packing all of their medication, their sensory items, their safety items, minimizing number of distractions and triggers, etc. It would probably take me at least 3 months just to plan when to go when it's not so busy and not so hot! Some of that planning and research goes into holiday gatherings and simple trips to a grocery store. It's exhausting just to plan it, let alone go on the trip.

2023 was a year of discovery, of advocacy, and of growth. My oldest (5.5) was diagnosed with Autism and ADHD, has trialed 3 medications, started school, and is starting the process of an IEP for him. My youngest (4), started early childhood at school, is flourishing with ABA and has grown so much speech wise where he can somewhat now express his needs and wants, along with his frustrations. We have learned how to navigate some of his meltdowns and behaviors and it has just been amazing to see him grow. Our family also gained a new family member, our service dog: Dallas. Dallas is a 1.5 year old Bernedoodle who is trained to be tethered with my youngest who is an elopement risk. We call him the "house horse" because he's 70lbs and as tall as our kitchen table! He still has some puppy tendencies but loves the boys and LOVES attention. He does amazing with Brayden when it comes to tethering and loves to snuggle and play with Bennett. The picture below shows how the tethering works and Brayden gets to hold on to his own "leash" for Dallas as well.

What am I hoping for in 2024? To continue to grow and watch my children grow. We've had one obstacle already thrown at us with our therapy place closing. We are now looking at traveling 45 minutes one way just to get SLP, OT, and PT for both kids. I have a conference of some sort scheduled for each month for myself to continue growing in knowledge and to help advocate for my kids. I can navigate the medical world pretty well, but where I struggle is the IEP process and rules. I'm hoping to expand my knowledge on that along with expanding my advocacy role locally as well. While I already started a Facebook group for families in the same county, I feel there needs to be additional support for families so I'm looking at hosting in-person support groups for parents to just vent, talk, share ideas, and be vulnerable. I want to be able to acknowledge other families that are facing different yet similar journeys and validate their feelings, their concerns, their fears. Like I said in a previous blog about grieving, we all do it differently and I feel, for me, is a continual process because we don't know what the future holds and there are SO MANY unknowns. I will say while I am starting the year already exhausted yet going at a running pace, I have hope and I think that's all I really can have.

What challenges are you facing right now? You, as a parent, not your kids, but YOU?