This is my story…
I consider myself a lady of the province of Alberta, in Canada. I have moved frequently as a child, early adult and now as an older and wiser adult. This has helped shape and prepare me for the adult years of adaptation, inclusion, and of course, teamwork. I come from a large family and I love connecting with people. I love dreaming of the bigger picture and how we can help each other get there! It truly takes a village!
I am riding the rollercoaster of life with my three kids. One girl and two boys. Hannah was born in 2009 and was diagnosed in 2012 with Angelman Syndrome. On this crazy journey, we are always learning and creating our vision by raising Hannah who with living a disability.
We strongly believe as a family and for my daughter, that Angelman syndrome is part of her, it does NOT define her!
Having a child who lives with a disability is extremely challenging and like all the other parents; we have had our highs, our lows, our really dark moments, and beautiful soul awakenings! But day-to-day it can be very challenging as a caregiver on top of all our other roles and responsibilities. Raising a child with a disability can be incredibly lonely.
In the “dark years,” as I call them, I used to pray for someone to sit down with me and talk about my daughter, to share in our successes, and help me move forward with intentions that spoke to my heart and not the paperwork that was dictated by anyone else.
I wanted someone to give me their undivided attention and help troubleshoot some challenges that were keeping me up at night.
I was getting so frustrated with the general answers people were giving me in the quick meetings. In those hard years, I know that I could see Hannah through it all but I craved a coach/consultant more than anything to help me dive deeper into getting to know her. How do I best support her in the education system? The funny thing as parents, I think we will always slip in and out of survival mode, grieving in our own way but we always see the beauty in the child that we created. How do we help others to see that as well?
