Special needs parenting is demanding, exhausting, chaotic at times but it’s also rewarding, life changing and I love it because:
It’s all an adventure: every day is different; it’s all about what you make it.
Not every day is necessarily an exciting adventure but I find at the end of every day there is something positive to take away and if I think about our lives over the last few years it’s definitely been an adventure full of challenges, new experiences and it’s changed our whole outlook on life for the better.
It’s made my faith stronger: I believe in miracles, I believe in proving medical professionals wrong, I believe in achieving milestones that were never thought possible.
I believe that my boys are here for a reason and I believe that I’ve found my purpose in life.
We get to see real kindness in action: we’ve had volunteers come to help with our boys, we’ve had people support our charity fundraisers, we’ve had people ask after our boys and we’ve had people give up their own time so we can have time out.
In the whirlwind that we sometimes live in as special needs parents we get to meet people we might never have come into contact with, the world is full of the loveliest people and we get to see that on a daily basis.
We celebrate the small stuff: every tiny milestone for us is a big deal so in our house we celebrate.
We appreciate the small things that maybe others take for granted and I love that we get to be free of the comparison stuff; our boys are different, they aren’t like everyone else.
I love that we get to parent in such a way that removes the pressure – we tell our boys daily that they are unique, they don’t have to keep up with everyone else’s achievements because they are amazing in their own way, they will achieve different goals and that is absolutely ok with us because they make us proud daily.
I’ve learned to accept: I love that I’ve learned not to waste time thinking about what might have been but that I focus on the now and that I can trust that however things turn out, it will make me glad that what might have been never came to be.