Yes, You Can Enjoy Life Again
This is a guest post by Laurie Wallin, author of Get Your Joy Back and Why Your Weirdness Is Wonderful: Embrace Your Quirks and Live Your Strengths “I’m so tired,” she says, looking down at the table, her finger tracing the wood’s grain. “I just don’t know what to...
You are Not Alone
In this journey of parenting children with disabilities I have discovered that many of us feel alone: Does anyone understand what it is like to walk in our shoes? Could someone really understand why I feel the way I do? Am I the only one that wrestles feeling like I...
Learning to Empower My Kids to Become Their Own Advocates
“Why do you walk like a penguin?” A little boy said this to my daughter, who has cerebral palsy, about two years ago. She didn’t answer him, she ignored his question and talked to the teacher about it. By the time I heard about it, the teacher had already talked to...
Confessions of a Special Needs Parent: Please Don’t Praise Your Kid for Playing With Mine
It happens, a kid plays with a child with a disability and the parents are proud, they want to praise that friendship and you might hear statements like, “Oh honey, you are so wonderful!” “You are the kindest person I know!” “You are the sweetest thing!” “You have a...
Not a Mistake
Essay as it appears on the book Gifts 2: How People With Down Syndrome Enrich the World 2009 I was sitting in the family room watching TV and stroking my pregnant belly when my husband, Andy, walked into the room. Ten minutes before, he had answered a knock at the...
Ellen Stumbo writes and speaks about finding beauty in brokenness with gritty honesty and openness. She's passionate about sharing the real – sometimes beautiful and sometimes ugly – aspects of faith, parenting, special needs, and adoption. Ellen’s writing has appeared on Focus on the Family, LifeWay, MomSense, Not Alone, Mamapedia and the Huffington Post.