Advocacy

October 1, 2015

Get In The Pool

My essay analogy about life as a parent with a child with a disability being like trying to swim in a pool has been picked up by BLOOM, online magazine for Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital. http://bloom-parentingkidswithdisabilities.blogspot.ca/2015/09/its-hard-to-tell-when-special-needs.html There are some paragraphs in this version that weren’t in the earlier version. Tina

October 27, 2015

Our Son Had a Positive Transition to High School

Our Son had a Positive Transition to High School: Why? Good Planning, Respect for Parental Knowledge and Excellent Teamwork High school was coming fast and just the thought of it filled me with dread. Our son, Corbin, was still only attending school part time in the 8th grade. This was due to many factors and was agreed upon by all parties including us, his parents. He had support of an Educational Assistant (EA) though we felt the EA was not a good match for Corbin and was part of the reason he was not flourishing at elementary school. Thinking of high school was daunting particularly because he has a lot anxiety and does not do well with change. The idea […]

January 13, 2016

An Apology To My Son

Dear Corbin I want you to know that I am a huge fan of yours and I love you completely. I admire how each day is a brand new day for you, you rarely hold a grudge. You are almost always happy and with a little encouragement you are learning to try new things. Having said all of that there is something I need to do. I need to apologize I’m sorry for all the days I spent on the phone and typing emails to people who in the end neither believed in you nor had anything to offer. I’m sorry I spent so much time seeking out therapy and ways to “fix” you instead of using available therapies to […]

April 15, 2016

Self Advocacy

In 2010 our son Corbin was in crisis and needed to have a residential placement at the Child and Parent Resource Insititute (CPRI) in London Ontario. While he was there we were able to start the process of having him diagnosed with Bipolar disorder (on top of all his other diagnosis – Tourette’s, ADHD, OCD, Disturbance of Attachment, Autism, Sensory Integration Disorder and probably more I just can’t think of right now). His time at the residential placement ended prior to completing the assessment for Bipolar. Following his time at CPRI we transitioned him (rather poorly) to our local children’s mental health agency for ongoing services while we continued the assessment process and subsequently began trying medication to better manage […]

July 12, 2016

Harder Than I Ever Thought It Would Be

We worked long and hard to become parents. Years of infertility filled with tests, needles, examinations, surgeries and the loss of dignity. We moved on to adoption and were again met with questions and the need to prove ourselves. But finally the day came and we welcomed a wonderful 3 year old boy to our family. We were so proud and excited to start our new life together. I was new to my job so Adam took a few weeks of parental leave while I finished up my probationary period. From all accounts, they had a great time each day just hanging out and playing and setting up a pool for Corbin. I was so excited to be a stay at home mom,which […]

October 18, 2016

Checking In

So I haven’t blogged for several months. Honestly the summer flew by, we only got to go camping in our new pop up trailer twice and both times were unbearably hot and humid – like sit in your own sweat all day type humid. Our niece Teegan came down for several weeks and she was Corbin’s support person in the evenings. He loved having someone his age to watch movies with and she even managed to get him to go for walks. We loved it because we weren’t inundated with a million requests. He also got his beginner driving licence. Corbin also found his way onto this blog. I knew it would happen one day. I have tried to be […]