“When I was 14, my parents surprisingly had another child with Down syndrome. My mother went through a year of emotional breakdown. She felt humiliated.”
By Eliza Murphy -
‘Having 2 brothers with Down syndrome is far from disabling’: From ‘humiliation’ to ‘compassion,’ sister’s says her special needs siblings ‘teach us more than we teach them’
By Eliza Murphy -
What I Want My Child To Know After They F*ck Up
“In anticipation of an occurrence that I wholeheartedly hope never happens, but undoubtedly know will, I have preemptively drafted myself a script that I will hopefully remember in the coming years…”
By Eliza Murphy -
‘My 8-year-old daughter has autism, one child walked off, refusing to take part in the lesson because my daughter was on her team.’
“Does she have to be on our team?”
By LJ Herman -
‘If you can’t control your kid, then don’t go out’: What it takes to turn a child into a person.
“These lessons take patience, hard work, and real world experiences, and I’m sorry to those at the bar who got irritated by my child’s fit, but you are part of this practice.”
By LJ Herman -
‘He gave me a house before a ring and that’s OK’
“I’m aware that we didn’t follow the bible, and that does bother me. I can promise you this though: I do pray about it, and we are very serious.”
By LJ Herman -
The call came at midnight, ‘We have a 3-year-old girl at the hospital. Her mom was shot, Her dad has been arrested. Can you come pick her up?’
“Calls from DHS are like a Create-Your-Own-Adventure Game. Each ‘yes’ takes your family on a wild new adventure you never expected.”
By LJ Herman -
‘I realize love is the most powerful, the most exhausting, the most incredible way to live your life’
“Now, watching my dad care for my mom, I realize love is the most powerful, the most exhausting, the most incredible way to live your life — from beginning to end.”
By Eliza Murphy -
‘To my middle school son, I have a few things I’d like you to know’
“You were designed perfectly, imperfect. You will make mistakes. Do and say dumb things. Have some regrets. But, you will also overcome.”
By Eliza Murphy -
I was the perfect mom. Until I had kids.
“That’s when I saw you. A beautiful young woman who presumably doesn’t yet have children of her own. Another perfect (albeit, kidless) mom, just as I had been once upon a time. I recognized the look in your eyes.”
By LJ Herman -
‘It took my breath away’: Mom uses shattered mirror as beautiful lesson of love
“Sometimes things break. Sometimes we break them. It’s not the breaking that matters, the how or why. What matters is how we choose to respond to the broken-ness.”
By LWM Staff -
