You just read that title and thought “I know my kid is mortal. I’ve faced this.” And I would agree with you before my daughter was diagnosed with cancer. But I didn’t realize what my child’s mortality really was until it slapped me in the face. I knew, when I got pregnant, that I had… Continue reading The Moment You Face Your Child’s Mortality
We had an “incident” at our daughter’s after school a couple of weeks ago. Three boys surrounded her while she was coloring with chalk on the ground, circled her while saying “we’re circling you, you can’t get up, neener neener neener” (kids really are idiots… seriously… wtf?). Her response was to throw a piece of… Continue reading Hard Decisions and Trying to Emulate Normalcy
3:30 a.m. Tuesday morning. I have Sophie tucked into her booster seat behind me. Butterfly pillow between her head and her brother’s car seat as she leans into it. Sugar-skull covered fluffy blanket over her. She’s still in her Lego movie pajamas and falls right back to sleep once I get the truck moving. I… Continue reading Feeling Squishy
In my last blog I said I didn’t want to be negative. I didn’t want to make a list of things NOT to say to the parents of chronically ill children. And I still don’t. But someone said something to me that has brought this one thing forward. One thing that should NEVER be said… Continue reading Do Not Dictate How I’m Supposed to Feel
When you have a child with a chronic illness, you have to go through the steps of grief emotionally to handle the disease. But once you go through those and get through the initial emergency period, you can get complacent during long stretches of generally good health where the “chronic” doesn’t rear its ugly head. … Continue reading The Steps of Grief with Each Doctor Visit
Last night, I held our youngest daughter against my chest and placed a flannel blanket that her Grammy made for her against her cheek and rubbed, holding the blanket wrapped around her tiny body. She instantly grabbed it with one arm and snuggled her face against it, against my chest, and promptly fell asleep. I… Continue reading Little Hands and Living in the Now
My husband is a man of many colors, a renaissance man with many cloaks and many talents. He is humble and kind and doesn’t think much of himself, which is ridiculous, but I can hardly change him or how he sees himself after 14 years. Much like myself, his soul was marred by our daughter’s… Continue reading Homage to Chemo Dads
When I was in law school, I remember being in torts class and learning about “the eggshell plaintiff.” A plaintiff is a person who sues another person in court for injuries. The Eggshell plaintiff is the person who is injured by something you did, but their injuries are far worse than they would be in… Continue reading The Eggshell Child
After nearly losing a child, I find that my approach to raising her and her siblings has completely changed. I learned so much about how to parent from her. This is what I’ve learned: Protect your children at ALL costs. I shouldn’t have to explain this one. You were given your child as a gift.… Continue reading What Nearly Losing My Child Taught Me About Parenting.
This $hi+ is real, people. It’s real. And this one was a hard one to write. Not because I didn’t want to put it out there, cause I’m not ashamed. It happened to me. It wasn’t something that I chose. It was hard to write because I had a hard couple of days with this… Continue reading PTSD for Parents of Children with Chronic Illnesses.
Herding Chaos 