Three of my kids have had to deal with learning disabilities and/or psychiatric disorders; Joey has Down Syndrome, my son Artie, has ADD with a reading disability and my Isabella was diagnosed with ADHD. I refused to put either one on any medication because I never believed that was the answer. Addiction is hereditary and runs in the family, so I always stayed away from anything that could be addicting.
Happy Mother’s Day to All you Beautiful Women! We are a special group of selfless human beings. As soon as we have our first child, we drop to second place. In my case – I spent a lot of years in 6th. One of the reasons I love my husband so much is because he started in 5th place, was soon dropped down to 7th and never complained. Poor guy stayed there for a long time. In the last few years, he has been moving up in rank as the kids have moved on and out. These days he bounces up and down between 3rd and 4th depending on who is around or if our Bella is home from college. +19
My daughters tell me I can be naive because I am admittedly surprised by these stories of blatant racism. How could this still be going on in this day and age? But here we are – I guess I am naive, but I am learning. I wasn’t taught about racism growing up. I don’t know how much it was talked about in anyone’s home in my generation – it wasn’t in mine. So it hits me, I am going to tell my story of the day I learned that racism existed….
Although I was a victim of so many different forms of sexual harassment for the better part of my teenage years and 20s, I am only going to pick a few instances for today. Otherwise, it would just be too much for one blog. By the time I was 15, I was done being a victim of anyone’s sexual deviance, enough was enough.
When I found out that I was pregnant and my baby had Down Syndrome, my mother said to me that I had finally gotten my wish. God answered my prayers and I was going to have a baby that would stay my baby forever. I always wanted my kids to stay little and sweet and innocent. It was my dream to keep kissing their beautiful, adorable faces and tell them I love them and that they would never grow up.
I started off with big plans and dreams, but then reality would take hold. I counted my blessings if I had bought enough candy for five. We could afford decent, but small gift cards and find some kind of a $5 item that they thought was the greatest thing since sliced bread. I am also pretty sure that those baskets are collecting dust in the attic.