2015 has been a year of accomplishment for our daughter. She has been employed at The Prospector Theater three days a week as an usher and gourmet popcorn baker. Her volunteer work at Pegasus’s Rider’s Closet, a charity founded by Georgina Bloomberg, remains a steady once-weekly endeavor of shinning boots and folding riding clothes. She attends music, […]
Special Needs: Transitions and Separations
A Mother Reflects: Daughter With Special Needs Surpasses Doctors’ Predictions (from NYMetroParents)
My following post was first published as an article in NY Metro Parents on March 24, 2014. (Click here to read it on NYMetroParents.com) Our 24-year-old daughter lives in a two-bedroom apartment, 15 minutes from our home, with another young woman and staff supervision. She has two volunteer jobs and one paying job. Her volunteer […]
News Update on Parenting Adult Special Needs: 4-30-13
Two Years Have Past: Two years ago today I wrote this post: Becoming a Consumer: 4-30-11 Admission Paperwork: On Friday, May 6th, our daughter becomes a client of her service agency. The other mother and I are instructed to bring psychological evaluations, documentation of all income sources such as SSI and SSA; Medicaid and social […]
A Puppy Passes & Newtown Loses Twenty Angels and Its Heart: 1/17/13
Too Much Sadness: Since my last post about our daughter’s adult special needs life, much has transpired for all Americans. A little more than a week after my posting, Newtown, Connecticut, a town adjacent to our own, became the target of a massacre unlike any our country has ever known. An intentional murder of twenty […]
The Busy Life Of A Special Needs Adult: 6-25-12
Swimmingly: In the last six weeks our daughter’s special needs adult life has been going along swimmingly, pun intended. She participated in Connecticut’s Special Olympics aquatic state finals, including spending two nights in a Southern Connecticut State University dormitory. She received a medal for her excellent riding (her “seat” as they call it) at the […]
A Humbling Journey with Warts and Blemishes for All To See: Part 2: 3-27-12
Jeez What An Adjustment: Since our daughter moved into her CRS on August 1, 2011, I have struggled to define the parameters of my role as mother in the new order. The fact that as of July 1, 2012 our daughter has become the responsibility of the State of Connecticut and a client of Ability Beyond […]
A Year’s Journey From All Sides Now: 03-26-12
All Sides Now: There is no easy way to end this series of posts on parenting adult special needs. Do I summarize, itemize, measure growth, anticipate challenge or celebrate accomplishment? Do I thank and applaud or alert and inform? Shouldn’t I be doing all of that? My hope is that I have done all of […]
Closing In On A Year & Building Trust: 3-12-12
March 30, 2011: In a little more than two weeks it will be a year since the first post on Parenting Adult Special Needs: One Day At A Time. Last week our daughter’s entire team of staff members from ABD (Ability Beyond Disability) and her DDS (Connecticut Department of Developmental Services) case manager sat down […]