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Special kids make parents special.

15 May

Special kids make parents special. Special needs kids are not brought to special parents.

This…is my truth.

Before I start I must state that these are MY beliefs and mine only. I know that everyone has their own opinions of these types of things and I do not mean to be disrespectful or offend anyone. This is simply something that I think and that I felt like writing about today.

I do not believe that I have some kind of special characteristic or that I was CHOSEN to be the parent of a special needs child. I like the idea of that, but I don’t really believe it. To truly believe that, places me on some kind of high pedestal above everyone else. To say that, would be saying that I possess some kind of super human mother strength that has allowed me to endure, maintain, and overcome something that other mothers could not have done.

This isn’t true.

Many people say to me “I just don’t know how you do it? It must be so incredibly hard. I could never do what you do.” My response is “Yes you could. Yes you would. If this had happened to a child of yours, you would do what I have done and what I do. You would have no other choice.”

I didn’t have a choice.

I was a good mother before I had Oli. Logic would indicate that I would be a pretty good mother regardless of what type of child that I had. I don’t think that I do anything extraordinary. I think that through the progression of dealing with what I have, I have been incredibly slow to learn to live with it.

When I write the story part of my blog I write it as it was back then. Not as it is right now. When I talk about the loneliness, the sadness, the self-pity, self-hatred, blame, regret, remorse…that’s how I felt back then, not how I feel right now. I have learned to accept, embrace, and move on from believing that this is something that happened TO ME.

This did not happen to me. This happened to Oli.

Ever since Oli was born I have acted in a way that I did not feel inside. I have always ACTED like it was all fine and that I was okay with her disabilities and her struggles. Because I never wanted her to feel like she was any different. I never wanted her to see that I felt sorry for her. I never wanted her to feel my tears stream down my face or feel my body shake as I shuddered with grief.

I acted how I didn’t feel inside because I wanted to feel what everyone else did. I wanted to feel peaceful with it. I wanted to get to that elusive acceptance part that other parents would talk to me about.

Where was it? How do you get there? I use to cry and beg my husband “Tell me what to do! Tell me how you feel how you feel!”

It was only not too long ago that I finally started believing it all for myself. I’m not saying that I feel okay with her struggles. I will never be okay watching my baby girl’s difficulties. What I am okay with now, is who she is as a person.
I am okay with what makes her Oli.

If you have a child like her or have fought with your own demons, you know what a tremendous accomplishment this is. This was huge for me. This took away all of the guilt that I felt since the day she was born. This also took away the pressure of believing that I had to live up to that super human mother strength. This took away the pressure of trying to do this thing perfectly.

When people would say things like “God gave her to you for a reason” I thought that it meant that I had to be perfect. Because if God had given her to me for a reason, then I must do something amazing with this gift. I must be the perfect mother because I was CHOSEN.

I had to stop believing all that because it was just too much pressure. It was too much. I would beat myself up if I made mistakes and punish myself for feeling the way that I did. I would chastise myself because if GOD had handpicked me for this incredible task…then I was failing miserably. God wouldn’t want me to feel sorry for myself. God wouldn’t want me to feel sorry for her. God must be sorry that he chose me. Those thoughts began to consume me and I sunk lower and lower. Those words of my being blessed by a gift from God did nothing, but make me feel worse.

I do believe in God. I do believe that there is plan and a power greater than me that is running the show, but I don’t necessarily believe that I was specifically chosen. I believe that this just happened.

This might sound contradictory. It probably does. It’s hard to explain in words.

I guess just the fact that God, the big cheese, picked little old imperfect me specifically for this huge responsibility freaks me out a little bit. Okay. It freaks me out a lot. Those are impossibly huge, scary shoes to fill. Those are measurements that I just can’t possibly live up to.

I make mistakes. I mess up. I’m not perfect. I never will be. This is a learning process and unfortunately part of life is messing up. It’s making mistakes, but learning from them.

If you have spoken the words “God gave her to you for a reason” to me please know that I really appreciate it. Know that I don’t get upset or cringe anymore. I know that when people say those things it’s because they really believe them and it comes from a good place. I know that they are words of encouragement. I really don’t mind. I just wanted to talk about why I don’t say it to other people and why I hated being told that in the beginning.

The only thing that makes me special today is being the luckiest mom in the world to 3 beautiful children. One of them just happens to be special needs.

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Living within the isolation of myself.

14 May

We moved from Pahrump, NV to Round Rock, TX on October 1, 2009.

By the time we moved I was exhausted. Mentally exhausted.

Living in that desolate island of fear, tears, sand and mountains had completely depleted me. I felt so alone. Although my mom only lived a few minutes away and my husband was with me…I was alone.

I had submerged myself so deeply in self-pity and self-hatred, blame, guilt, remorse, and those constant day dreams of what might have been, I was beyond reach of anyone else. I was alone in a dark, sad, tear-filled cocoon of my own making.

I couldn’t wait to move. I had pushed everyone away. I would talk with my friends, listen to stories about their children, the whole time thinking to myself “You don’t understand. You just don’t understand how hard this is for me.” They didn’t understand. Because I never told anyone. Moving seemed like the best solution at that point. I thought that if I changed my outside, if I changed my zip code, that it would change the way that I felt.

I had convinced myself that it was all because Oli didn’t have enough support. That it was because I didn’t have enough support. It was. But, it wasn’t. Oli did need more help with people experienced in blindness, but I had some support. I just couldn’t see it then.

I had met and made friends with other moms who had visually impaired kids. I had become good friends and remain friends with some of them. None of them were totally blind though. I had led myself to believe that because their kids weren’t totally blind, that they didn’t really understand what it was like.

I had made it US vs. THEM.

I had isolated myself even against the people who knew what it was like. I was looking for all of the differences in our lives rather than the similarities. I think some part of me enjoyed that feeling of isolation. Some part of me liked feeling sorry for myself and enjoyed believing that I was the only one in the world who felt the way that I did. That no one could possibly understand my struggles.

It just simply wasn’t true though.

LOTS of people knew how I felt.

If I just would have stopped for a second and looked outside myself, I would have seen that. I would have seen that I had people surrounding me that wanted to help me. They wanted to understand what I was going through. If I would have made myself available to them…if I would have made myself a little vulnerable…I would have seen that.

I didn’t.

I didn’t when we lived in Nevada and I didn’t when we first got to Texas.

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My life as mom.

12 May

When my son Kekoa was born in 2005, I became a mother for the first time. When my daughter Oli was born in 2007, I became a completely different kind of mother. I became a special needs mother. When my last daughter Ginger was born in 2010, I became a different mother again. Each child has changed me, made me grow, and taught me new things. Each child has made me the mother that I am today, but not the mother that I will be tomorrow. As each year passes, as each child gets a little older, as I in turn get a little older (boo), I learn. I learn and become a little more comfortable with this messy, unpredictable, smelly, funny, weird, magical thing we call motherhood.

When my son was first born, I was a wreck. Seriously. I panicked over everything. I was terrified that someone was going to breathe on him the wrong way and give him the plague. I was scared that someone would hold him the wrong way and his neck would snap off or they would drop him on his head. I was afraid that formula would make him less smart or that the wrong baby food would give him some kind of weird disease or give him explosive diarrhea.

When he was 2 months old I seriously thought that he might have some kind of syndrome. I studied him too long one night and my lack of sleep and new mother brain absolutely convinced me that something was wrong with his face. Didn’t his nose look a little too flat on top? Weren’t his eyes set too close together? Was his head supposed to be that big? My husband laughed at me and certified me exhausted. I was sent to bed and he looked normal to me again in the morning.

I worried that he slept too much or didn’t sleep enough. I worried about his clothes. I wanted him to have the most adorable new clothes and I worried that while I worked, my husband would dress him in mismatching outfits and wrong colored socks. I worried about him sleeping on his back. I worried about him sleeping on his tummy. Could I cover him up at night or would he smother to death? Was this the right kind of bottle or would it give him gas? Was this swing certifiably safe or would it be recalled in a month? Was I doing it right? Was I doing it wrong? And his manual was…where? Where was his manual? I would think, “This kid should’ve come with directions.” Then I would remember that I’m not so good with directions and then I would worry about THAT! I worried about everything. I was ridiculous. I was NEW!

And then I had Oli. Oh my god. THEN I had Oli!

I still worried about everything, but those worries changed. I worried about all of those other things and more! I worried that she wouldn’t live to see her first birthday and that I wouldn’t get to watch her grow up. I worried that she wouldn’t grow or eat well enough to thrive. I worried that blindness would handicap her in such a way that she would never enjoy her life fully. I worried that she would never walk or talk. I worried that she would never have any friends. I worried that she would never have a boyfriend, go to the prom, or get married. I worried that she would never get to know the joys of raising her own children. I worried that if she did have children, they would be affected by the same eye condition and also be blind. I worried that blindness would not be her only disability. I worried that there would be more.

And then I had Ginger. For the love of all the crying in the world…and then I had Ginger. She cried so much and I was so stressed out about having three children ages 4 and under that the only things I ever worried about with her was whether or not she had been fed and if her diaper was clean. I didn’t have time to worry about anything else. I didn’t have the energy either. She rarely got new clothes and often times, she wore the same clothes that she had slept in the night before. If she wasn’t crying, we were good. She cried all the time. Sooooo…we were not good very often. I still didn’t really worry much with Ginger. Maybe I had worried myself out?

Many of the worries that I had with Kekoa and Oli were valid as a new mother and as a new special needs mother. Many of them were classified as ABSURD, but many of them still stalk my brain at night. It seems that when the darkness falls, some of those old fears silently creep back into my mind. They try to keep me awake, pretending that I can predict the future and the outcome of what life holds for us. Then I wake up in the morning. When I wake up I remember again that life is a journey and an adventure and I don’t always need to know the destination. I only need to be present for the ride.

Motherhood is about changing, adapting, and growing. Old dreams may be lost, but new dreams are acquired. Old thoughts and ideas are discarded and new ones are developed and perfected. Things we worried about before are acknowledged as silly. Other things we worried about before still linger.

The point is…every mother worries. Regardless if you have a child with special needs or not. It’s a requirement for getting your motherhood license. You must worry about the most insane, ridiculous, irrelevant, nonsense matters. And you must worry about the reality and the responsibility of raising good people. We are all just trying to raise good little people and make sure that they grow up into respectable, responsible, productive members of society.

All of us just want to love our children and sometimes we just want to survive the day.

Because some days…mother’s just need to survive the day.

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HAPPY 6TH BIRTHDAY OLIANA!! MAY 10TH 2013

10 May

I made a slideshow for Oli’s 6th birthday. *Warning* Content may cause viewers to burst into tears. Use extreme caution when viewing and the use of tissues and/or sleeves is advised:) I hope you guys enjoy the pictures, the story, and the music.

Click to play this Smilebox slideshow
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Another free slideshow by Smilebox

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But she might…

8 May
As soon as my tires hit the gravel and I pull into R.O.C.K where Oli rides her horse, she gets THIS look on her face. She knows exactly where we are and what is about to happen. Then I say, "Oli we're HERE!!! It's time to ride your horse!" And she starts frantically clapping and yelling. She knows. No one can tell me that she doesn't understand. Just look at her face. I KNOW she knows.

As soon as my tires hit the gravel and I pull into R.O.C.K where Oli rides her horse, she gets THIS look on her face. She knows exactly where we are and what is about to happen. Then I say, “Oli we’re HERE!!! It’s time to ride your horse!” And she starts frantically clapping and yelling. She knows. No one can tell me that she doesn’t understand. Just look at her face. I KNOW she knows.

I posted this picture on my facebook page today. I posted it to show an example of what one of Oli’s expressions look like. This is an expression of “I know what is happening and I’m going to sit really quietly for a second and then I’m going to get really excited because I love what we’re about to do”. She has LOTS of these looks.

Some people have told me throughout her life that because she has an intellectual disability, is delayed and has autism, she doesn’t understand. That she couldn’t possibly understand because she doesn’t speak and because her cognitive development is delayed. We know that she is missing some of her genes off of her 14th chromosome. We know that this has affected her development and her learning. We know because she has done everything later than everyone else. We know that. I know that.

I know that despite being told that she may never walk independently, eat independently, have anticipation of events, be aware of her surroundings, have a sense of humor, the ability to laugh and to love, be funny, be brave, show strength and determination, cry, be sad, be mad, get frustrated… she has. I know that she has proved those people wrong every single time. And I know that she DOES understand. She does. I know because I KNOW her. Sometimes I feel like I know her better than I know myself. For whatever reason, she just can’t tell me what she understands with words.

I know that I may NOT know exactly what she is capable of in the future, but that I will ALWAYS give her a chance.

I know that I will ALWAYS believe in her.

ALWAYS.

That’s my job as her mother.

To believe in her despite all the odds, the challenges, the setbacks, the regression, the frustration and tears. Despite text books that tell me what she will or won’t do. Despite well educated doctor’s opinions and the opinions of the rest of the world. I will believe in her. I will never expect her to do less than her very best and I will never accept the words “She will never…”.

Because she might.

Because she probably will.

And even if she doesn’t do something or say something, I will go to my grave believing that it is still possible.

Some may call that naïve or say that I’m in denial. I’m not. I know that there is always the possibility that she will never move out, go to college, or get married.

But she might…

I will never ever be able to look into her sweet face and not see the sky as the limit. I will never take anyone else’s opinion on what she will or won’t do as fact. Oli will have to prove it to me. And even then, I will still push her. I will push her to have confidence and believe in herself. To set goals and achieve them. I will push her to develop her own sense of identity and to be kind. To love other people and to be respectful. To be understanding and to be grateful for what she has. To live and to laugh and to never look back. To view past mistakes as learning opportunities and chances to grow. To greet each day with optimism, and with a smile on her face, and to act better than she feels. To know that every day will not be perfect, but that’s okay. I want to push her to do her best with what she has and to be proud of who she is. I want her to be prideful instead of pitiful. I never want the world to take pity on her and I never want her to feel like she deserves it when they do.
Because they will.

She may never be able to do these things.

But she might…

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Leaving a child behind

1 May

After what seemed like an hour, but was more likely only a few minutes, I dared to sneak a glance at my husband. His face was a silhouette against the window of our car. With the sun setting orange behind him I could just make out the corners of his lips turning upwards in a smile.

“Move? You really think we need to move?” He asked, sparing a glance at me and momentarily taking his eyes off the road.

“I do. I think that we really should. Oli’s vision teacher is always telling us how great Austin, TX is. I think we should look into it.” I answer.

“Okay. I’m in. She just isn’t getting the amount of services that she needs. She needs occupational therapy and speech. She needs more physical therapy and orientation and mobility. I agree. Las Vegas, NV is definitely not the best place to raise a special needs daughter. Let me talk to my company and see what they can do. Maybe I could somehow transfer.”

And that was it.

The decision to move my family was made on a hot summer day in August 2009 on the drive back from California after a trip there for my birthday.

There were no arguments and no one resisted the change. We simply decided to move.

Bittersweet tears were shed by my husband. He was happy for Oli, but sad for who he was leaving behind. Moving to Texas meant leaving his two sisters, two nephews, one niece and his mother behind in Vegas. It also meant moving much, much farther away from his daughter, my step daughter Thalia, who lived with her mother in San Diego, CA. She was 11 years old at the time.

I didn’t appreciate then what an enormous amount of strength and courage that decision took for him. What it meant to leave a child and move somewhere where he would only see her once every 6-9 months instead of every month. He made the type of decision for Oli, which I’m not sure that I could have ever made. He made a choice to help one child, who may have needed it more, with the sacrifice of not seeing the other. Their relationship would remain tightly intact via computers and nightly phone calls. Many many phone calls.

And many many tears.

Many tears of sadness and loneliness were, and still are, shed on behalf of Thalia.

Some days he gets lost without his oldest daughter.

Sometimes I wonder if he regrets leaving.

I wonder if he thinks it was worth it.

I’m sure most days he thinks that it was. And then. . .I’m sure there are others where the pain and the sadness are too much. Days where he longs to feel the touch of her sweet embrace and see the warmth of her beautiful smile.

I do know that every day he misses her. Every. Single. Day.

We both do.

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Heartache written on a piece of paper

1 May

Before I move on with my story, I have to write about Oli’s mandatory 3 year evaluation for school. They evaluate her to determine her progress and also to determine whether or not she still meets the eligibility qualifications for services. She’ll be 6 years old on May 10th.

O&M was the first evaluation scheduled to be completed. O&M stands for orientation and mobility and focuses on body awareness, spacial concepts, walking and navigating around the environment as a blind or visually impaired child. As a totally blind kiddo, Oli always qualifies for O&M. Her O&M instructor is absolutely fabulous. She is a wonderful woman and teacher and I really like and respect her. She has been with Oli since we moved to Texas when she only was 2 ½ years old.

I have to tell you that, before I get into the results of her evaluation. Before I tell you how little progress Oli seems to have made in the last 3 years. This is NOT, in any way, a reflection on her teacher.

This is just Oli. This has always been Oli.

You see, progress is slow with her. She does do new things and accomplishes goals every once in a while. It just doesn’t happen very quickly or very often.

It’s hard.

It’s so hard to watch your child work so hard and struggle. To try and to fail. To improve and do something new, only to have it slip away. Some of her new skills have diminished and then disappeared completely. At the beginning of the school year Oli was standing up from the middle of the floor all by herself. She would just stand up and every once in a while she would start walking. Just like any other kid. Then it stopped. It stopped completely and she hasn’t done it at all in 8 months.

Is that skill gone forever? Did she have a seizure that wiped it away? Did she forget how to do it? Did something scare her? Why does she lose these skills so easily?

I don’t know.

That is my universal answer when teachers and therapists ask me “Why doesn’t she do that anymore?”

I don’t know. I don’t have any idea.

I wish I did. I wish I could take a peek inside her brain and figure it out for her. I wish I could just look at her and say “Remember when you did that? Or said that? Can you do it again please?” I wish I had an answer. Something better than, “I don’t know?”

That’s not how it works though. What is the problem for her? Why does she struggle through learning simple things? Why can’t she be potty trained or pull up her pants? Why can’t she remember where her nose is consistently or say hi? Why doesn’t she tell me that she wants eggs for breakfast or tell me she wants to play with the bells? She used to do all of these things.

Why can’t she tell me that she loves me?

So many questions and so very few answers.

Is it her autism, her blindness, her developmental delay, her intellectual disability? What is it?

No one can tell me because they all overlap.

No one has any answers, but everyone asks me. Because I’m her mom. I should know. At least, I feel like I should know.

I’ve never known the most profound sense of helplessness since meeting my baby girl. I’ve never felt so out of control on all things that feel like they need to be controlled.

I’m her mom. I should know what’s going on with her.

But, I don’t. I never have.

I’ve read a few other blog posts written by moms of kids with disabilities and they talk about looking at other moms and being jealous of them and their children. I understand that. I try not to compare my daughter to anybody else’s children, mainly because I did that WAY too much in the beginning, but sometimes…I still do. Not in the uuuggghhh…I hate you because you don’t know how good you’ve got it…way. But…uuuggghhh…Look how easy it is for your kids. I just wish life wasn’t so hard for her…way. I’m jealous of other special needs kids who learn things easier than her or kids that don’t have multiple disabilities. But then I HATE myself for thinking that way because it’s ridiculous. I don’t know that life is any easier for them or any harder for my daughter. There are a lot of kids out there in way more difficult situations. These are things that just should not be compared.

I think sometimes I just want her to get better.

I look at my other two kids and it just all comes so naturally for them. They just learn. No big deal. For Oli everything is such a bigger deal. She can’t see so right there, it’s a whole new ball game trying to teach her. And then her body just doesn’t work all that well. It seems like she wants it to do things and it just doesn’t. She has low tone and poor balance. Her arms are weak. She needs a very long time mentally and in terms of motor planning just to figure out where she’s going and how she’s supposed to get there.

It just isn’t easy.

Reading these evaluations…isn’t easy.

It’s always hard to read the same evaluation year after year.

It’s hard to read “She used to do this…She used to say this…but now she doesn’t.”

It’s hard because I know she’s in there. I know what she’s capable of. I just don’t know why it comes and goes. I don’t know how to make it any better for her.

She does therapy and therapy and more therapy. She gets PT, OT, speech, vision, and O&M at school. She gets PT, OT, speech, and hippotherapy at home. I just always feel like maybe there’s more. Maybe there is that one therapy out there that we’re not doing and that will be the key that unlocks the door.

In my brain I know that it probably doesn’t exist. In my brain I know that we are doing everything.

In my heart? I want to do more.

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IN MY DREAMS, SHE FALLS OFF THE CLIFF

29 Apr

Have you ever had a dream that you wake from completely devastated, but so happy that you’ve awoken from your worst nightmare? A dream that sits way too close to reality for comfort?

I’ve had a few of them, but three of those dreams stand out profoundly. These are three that I will probably never forget. All of them involve my Oli.

The first one was the recurring dream that I told you about in the very first blog that I wrote for my story. The dream that I was going blind. You can read it HERE. I’ve never had that dream again since Oli was born.

The second dream/nightmare happened after Oli had her first big seizure and we almost lost her. I must have had some kind of post-traumatic stress. I dreamed that she died that afternoon.

A van pulled up to my childhood home with my daughter’s body lying inside it. I met the driver of the van at the end of the driveway. I already knew that she was gone. The driver dipped his head in the sun, casting a dark shadow across his sorrow filled eyes. Then he walked around to the back and opened the hatch. When he turned around again he had a little bundle wrapped in a brown blanket in his arms. I couldn’t see any part of her. Except for her feet. They were lying across his forearm. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from her feet. She was holding them in a certain sweet way, so delicate and petite, crossed at the ankles. He handed her to me and I carried her wrapped in the blanket over to the shade of a tree and laid her quiet body beneath it. And then I just sat there. I sat there staring at her beautiful little feet. My heart broke into a million little pieces. How could she be gone?

I woke up from that dream gasping for breath, feeling the happiness and life being squeezed right out of me. I ran to the other room and sat on Oli’s bed. I sat there and stared at her chest, rising and falling with life. I rubbed her feet beneath the blankets until they wiggled and pulled away from my hand. I sat with her until that image of her lifeless form left my mind. But, it hasn’t left it completely. I still see those little feet lying motionless in the grass. I still vividly remember that dream.

It terrifies me.

The third dream I had last night.

I had a dream that I wasn’t her mother. I was her nanny and I was moving. I was moving very very far away from her and I wasn’t going to be able to see her again. It was so strange because in my dream I was looking at Oli through someone else’s eyes. Not my own. I saw her as other people must see her. She wasn’t my child, but I felt fiercely protective of her and completely torn apart at the thought of not watching her grow up.

She was sitting in a chair as I was saying good bye. Her curly hair was blowing in a breeze coming in through an open window. Her lips quivered in sadness. Her little eyes were filled with tears. She knew I was leaving.

I said, “Oh Oli. How am I ever going to live without you? I don’t want to go away. I want to stay with you forever. How am I going to survive?”

She wrapped her arms around my neck and nuzzled her face into the crook of my collarbone. Just like always. And then we said good bye. I cried and sobbed and screamed her name.

“Oli! Oli! No! Please! I can’t leave her! Don’t make me leave her!” The anguish washed a red tide over my heart and wiped all happiness away.

And then I woke up.

I woke up and my Oli was still sleeping safely in her bed. I hadn’t been taken from her. I was still her mother.

I don’t know what these dreams mean? I don’t know if other moms have these types of nightmares? Are other special needs moms terrified of losing their children? Do we all notice a visible line between life and death and are distinctly aware of keeping our children walking on this side? Do we all hover and protect, trying to keep them from falling off the edge only to have them flail beyond our control off of the cliff in our dreams?
I’ve never had dreams like these that involved my other children. They’ve never died or been taken away from me.

With Oli… I have. I still do.

I’m probably just terrified of losing her. Sometimes her life seems so fragile compared to everyone else’s. She seems so much more breakable. I imagine a lifetime of loving her and laughing with her, but I know that there is no guarantee. There is no guarantee with anyone, but with her it just seems so much more real.

Sometimes I just can’t seem to help being petrified that I’m going to lose her. I don’t want to lose her.

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Would Things Have Been Different?

24 Apr

Driving down to California that hot day in July, gave me a lot of time to reflect on what had happened during the previous 3 years. I started thinking about the year that I turned 27, 10 months before Oli was born.

Kekoa was only 7 months old. I have a picture of him and me on my birthday that year. He was sitting on my lap helping me to eat a piece of cake. What strikes me most in that photo is how young I look. How peaceful. The worry of doctor appointments, evaluation deadlines, and missed milestones had not yet been etched on my face. That deep penetrating sadness cannot yet be seen reflecting in my eyes. Grief cannot yet be seen shadowed over my shoulder. I had no idea what my life would look like just 3 short years later.

I can’t help but think about what my life would have looked like if I hadn’t had Oli.

Would I still be ignorant to things such as early intervention services, occupational and speech therapists, VI teachers and O & M specialists? Would I miss the looks that strangers give to those who are different than them? Those looks that say, “What is wrong with her? Oh! What is wrong with her?!” Those looks that break my heart. Would I be oblivious to the passing remarks containing the word “retard” or the jokes made about blind people? Would I miss spotting the looks of exhaustion and overwhelming sadness that I see painted all over the faces of other special needs moms? Would I appreciate every single day with my children as much as I do now because I fear that I don’t know what the future will hold? Would I cherish their kisses as sweetly or hold on as tightly when they wrap their arms around me? Would I have learned to walk through the grief and come out on the other side stronger and more secure than ever before?

These are all things that I thought about, but did not have the answers to yet, in July of 2009. That year my sole focus was still on changing it. I wanted to change my life however I could so that I would begin to feel better. I needed to feel like I was DOING something for Oli. Being her mother just wasn’t enough.

As I was lying on the beach or trying to sleep in a strange bed that weekend, I became consumed with what I could do for her.

What I was doing wasn’t enough.
It wasn’t enough.
I should be doing more.
Other mothers were doing more for their kids.
I needed more.
I needed to do more.
I have to get out.
I have to get out of Nevada.
They can’t help her.
They can’t give her the help that she needs.
There has to be more.
There has to be a place that can do more.

My mind was trapped on a hamster wheel, spinning, spinning, and spinning. Chasing an unseen assailant that was ruining my life. Chasing a dream that I would be able to change it all. A dream where I was able to fix this somehow.

Still…a dream that I would wake up to a daughter who was “normal”. A daughter who was not blind and developmentally delayed. That dream that I secretly lived in while the world moved on without me. The world moved on and left me alone with my self-doubt, self-pity, and self-hatred.

Because I didn’t want to feel this way.

I wanted to just love her and believe in her.

I DID love her and I DID believe in her.

I didn’t JUST do it though.

I thought that all of those feeling were abnormal. I thought that they were wrong. And I thought that they made me a bad person. A bad mother. Even though those thoughts were my truth. They were my reality and no matter how much I tried to ignore them, forget them, and deny them…they were always there.

They were there taunting me, shaming me, and making it difficult for me to breath.

They told me lies like, you are alone. You are a failure. No other mother in the world feels like you do. You don’t deserve to have these beautiful children. You are not good enough. You will never be able to do enough. You can’t help her. You will ALWAYS feel this way. You will always be terrified, sad, and miserable.

And I was. For a very long time I was.

I didn’t know what was making me feel that way though.

All I knew? I was unhappy and I needed more support. I needed more support for my daughter.

I waited until we began our drive back to Pahrump to broach the subject with my husband.

As the sun dipped silently beneath soft orange clouds I built up the courage to say, “I was thinking…maybe we need to look into moving to another state. Somewhere that has more vision services and can help us better.”

A million butterflies danced and turned somersaults in my stomach as I looked at my husband, waiting for his response. You could have cut the tension in the air with a knife, once those words were out of my mouth.

A few minutes past and then my husband spoke…

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I drive my husband nuts.

23 Apr

(Back to my Oli story…)

I woke up one morning at the end of July 2009, to a request to pack my suitcase.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

“I can’t tell you, just pack some clothes. Oh, and can you pack for the kids too?” My husband looks at me sheepishly.

“How am I supposed to pack for everyone if I don’t know where we are going? I will only pack if you tell me what I am packing for.” I reply in my true party pooper nature.

“We are going somewhere for your 30th birthday. If you want that surprise that you say that I never treat you to, you will close your mouth and just pack. Please. Be a nice girl and just pack and don’t make me ruin it for you.” My husband begs me.

But, alas, I am never one to make things easy on him. I start guessing.

“Camping? We’re going camping aren’t we? I don’t want to go camping. I love it, but I didn’t imagine my birthday so full of mud and dirt and so NOT full of bathrooms and showers and fully cooked meals.”

“No. We’re not going camping.” Seth responds. “Go pack.”

“The mountains. We’re going to the mountains aren’t we? I don’t know about that? It might be cold at night and then Oli won’t sleep and then I’ll be grouchy and you’ll be grouchy and then it will just suck and I’ll want to come home because the children will make me crazy.” I’m imagining snow covered mountains at 3 am and watching a beautiful sunrise amongst other patients in the looney bin. All of us wrapped cozily in straight jackets being sent there by our lovely children and our husbands wayward attempts at disastrous surprise birthday trips.

“No. We’re not going to the mountains. Now just go pack! Why do you have to make this so difficult?”

“Because that’s just me and that’s why you love me.” I reply with a sweet smile and a voice dripping with sarcasm.

“Are we going to Hawaii? I LOVE Hawaii! That would be the best birthday present ever! I could totally handle mud, dirt, non sleeping children and the looney bin in Hawaii! Let’s go there!”

“You’re not going to play nice are you? You’re going to make me tell you.” He smiles despite his annoyance because he knows me so well and had been planning on telling me the whole time.

“No and yes. No I won’t play nice and yes I will make you tell me.”

He shrugs and lets out an over embellished sigh. “Okay. If that’s what you want my darling, annoying, party pooper wife. We’re going to California. I rented a house for 3 days on the beach. Happy?”

“Yay! Yes! Yes I’m happy! I love California! Now I’ll go pack. What should I bring? What if it’s too hot? What if the kids get sunburned? I need lots of sunscreen. Did you pack the beach umbrella? Do we need to pack food for the house before or after we get there? Should I wear my blue bikini or my red one? Good thing I’m not showing with this baby yet. What about clothes for at night? It gets cool at night. Should I pack coats for the kids? What are you bringing?”

“Aaaaaggghhh! Shannon! YOU are making ME crazy! I’M the one who will end up in the looney bin at the end of all this! Just GO PACK!”

I smile sweetly at him again. He loves me.

Maybe this whole turning 30 thing won’t be as bad as I thought. There is one thing that we do have to discuss while we’re gone. Something that has been running through my mind and keeping me up at night.

We need to move. We need to get out of Pahrump, NV.

We need to go some place that isn’t so isolated and has better services for Oli. I can’t stand the hour long drive to doctor appointments and the minimal therapy services she is receiving. We have to do better for her. We have to go someplace that can help her to learn and to thrive in this world as a blind child. We need to go where doctors understand her and therapists know how to teach someone who can’t see. Some place where she will not be an unusual case with an unknown condition.

I have to get out of this town. I feel like I’m drowning in a sea of uncertainty and suffocating on loneliness. I feel like if we could just get out and go someplace where people could help us, that it would all change. I wouldn’t feel like I was so weighed down by Oli’s disability and maybe I could learn to cope better. Maybe I would stop pretending that I was fine and I could start being honest. Maybe I would be able to tell someone that I hated this. I hated the fact that Oli wasn’t what I had imagined. Maybe I could tell someone that I was terrified of this baby that I was going to give birth to in 9 months. Maybe things would be different in a different place. Maybe I could let go of the hatred that I held for the way I felt. Maybe…Maybe I could just accept it and move on.

I’m thinking Texas. I’m thinking Austin, TX sounds like it would be a good place for my family. I hope my husband agrees… He’s going to get a surprise of his own this weekend.

Surprise honey! I want to move!

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