What do you do when you aren’t sure? We fought hard for Rowenna to repeat 4K and to have a half day of school. At the time, we were optimistic about the trajectory of therapy and felt like we (well, mostly me) had the stamina for another year of what feels like house arrest. There […]
About Melissa
Mom, writer, advocate, knitter.Author Archive | Melissa
A Win, I Guess
IEP is complete. Rowenna will have another year of 4K at our request and will attend a different school in our district. People are describing this as a “win” and congratulating me. I suppose it is a win. Ro will be in a placement that we truly feel is best for her at this time. […]
Unexpected, Unanticipated
It’s been a strange few days. I write here for…well, to be frank, I write here for myself. I process through writing, but I make Ro’s story public in hopes that every once in a while it speaks to someone else. I write my truth here, though sometimes it is scary to share and other […]
Five
Five. My girl is five today. The moment I first held her is so clear in my mind. She had the roundest, rosiest cheeks. The most perfect little rosebud mouth. Itty bitty ears. A tiny swirl of hair. She was beautiful. And every day – every single day – she somehow becomes more beautiful. More […]
Heartbreak and Lessons Learned
I toured a school for Rowenna this morning, and while I think we’ve found a good fit for next year, the failure of the current school year came careening around the corner and knocked me down. The district has been flat out wrong about a lot of things in the last few weeks. There is […]
To Be Continued
Disclaimer: Though we are choosing to advocate against a self-contained placement for Rowenna at this time, this is not a judgment on anyone who has chosen that for their child. We simply do not feel it is an appropriate placement for our daughter at this time based both on our observations at home and the […]
Love By Different Names
While I was pregnant with Afton, who we knew then would be our last child, I re-read The Poisonwood Bible. There was a quote that leaped off the page and grabbed me with its truth, one that hadn’t struck me as significant in previous readings: A first child is your own best foot forward, and […]
Privilege
We haven’t had Rowenna’s IEP meeting yet, but I want to pause here to talk about privilege for a minute. (And for those following at home… I do think things will end well after the meeting next week.) In the last week, I have become acutely aware of the amount of privilege I have when […]
Pop
Hear that? It’s the sound of my balloon bursting. Until now, we have had an amicable relationship with our school district. We felt very in sync with their suggestions for Rowenna, and we loved her placements for the last two years. We know many children who have various diagnoses, and many of them did an […]
Autism, Rowenna Style
As Autism Awareness Month draws to a close, I thought I would post about why we pursued further testing and what autism looks like for Rowenna. Disclaimer: we are still learning about autism and Down syndrome. For resources, please check out The Down Syndrome-Autism Connection and this fantastic book about the dual diagnosis. For a […]
