My Very First Blog!

Hi, Welcome to my blog!   Five years ago, I was a graduate student working on my Master's Degree in Clinical Psychology, when I became a specialized foster parent in the state of Massachusetts. I had 3 foster children stay at my home before I received a phone call to foster a 4 1/2 year old little boy named Ian. He was a little guy,  with a ton of energy, just a few words and no eye contact.

IAN   DAY #1

I was very excited to have Ian, he was the youngest foster child I had had at that point!  I picked him up from the psychiatric hospital on December 4th, 2003. He had been living there for 6 months; he was all packed and ready to go with his plastic shopping bag packed with c

lothes for 2 days, a fleece blanket and a stuffed animal. He also came to me that day with a chaotic past filled with horrific abuse and neglect. I was told he had some minor behavioral issues, but nothing major. Soon after he moved in, I saw the true colors of his past show, but despite his struggles, he is the most resilient child I have ever met. 

The plan for Ian was to stay in foster care for 3-6 months and then reunite with his birth family, however, after a year in foster care, his birth family proved they were not able to care for him and he was put on the adoption track.  From the moment I met him at the hospital, I  fell in love with the blond hair, blue eyed, bundle of energy and could not imagine our lives without each other. We pursued the adoption and four years ago I became the proud adoptive mom to my son, Ian, who is now 9 years old!

 I finished graduate school 6 months before we finalized our adoption and was eager to start working full time in the special education/counseling field again. Even before my masters program I had done a lot of work in the field. My speciality was in learning, emotional and behavior disabilities. I quickly realized being a single working mom to a child with special needs was not working for us in any way. I began working part time in different roles in my field and again this was not working for us. 

Just recently, in the past year I realized in order to be the best parent to Ian, make a decent income and have a flexible schedule, something had to change, which leads me to where I am now in my life. 

I work from home as an Educational Consultant/Parent Advocate to help families navigate the special education maze and I am in the process of building a $1mm health and wellness company through Arbonne! This has been life changing for our family and I am excited to be on this new track where I can help other families, follow my passion and be the best person and mother I can be.

www.parentadvocate.vpweb.com

My blog will focus on different topics in the special education field and my hope is to open the lines of communication up between professionals and families struggling with special needs children. My expertise includes Reactive Attachment Disorder, Early-Onset Bipolar Disorder, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Autism Spectrum Disorders and Learning Disabilities. I encourage you to leave comments and/or email me; your feedback is always appreciated and encouraged.

"Start by doing what's necessary, then what's possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible."