We’re a happy and successful family because everyone does their job. Amy and I do our best at parenting but we are absolutely not perfect. Everyone in our home has strengths and weaknesses. Each of us has days when we do more to help our family members and days when we slow our family down. But we all lift where we have strength to lift and we allow others to carry us when we are weak. Our family has been a mixture of biological building and adoption, which has produced significant diversity. Some of our family members have special needs of several types. Jack joined our home at the age of one month in 1995. He has Down syndrome and he has taken on the task of teaching our family to keep our priorities in order and to be happy, even during challenges. Three of our children have intellectual disabilities. Several of our family members were hurt in former families. As a result of various kinds of domestic abuse and other abuse, there are physical, emotional and psychological scars. But we have learned that we can be happy and successful when we work at overcoming our challenges. In our home, those challenges include mental illness in several forms. Therapists use words like depression, reactive attachment disorder, post traumatic stress disorder, fetal alcohol syndrome disorder and others to help us target areas where we can improve our lives to increase the happiness in our home. Of all the diagnoses, RAD has been the most challenging for our family. Perhaps, in our blogs, you will see examples of your own family challenges. Even if you don’t, we hope that you will share in our family’s good times. On other days we hope you will see that life is meant to be lived and that we are capable of being happy, even during the hard times.
Please note that under the “Blogs>>” tab there are several worthwhile categories by different members of our family.
In our blog articles, we won’t ignore the “natural fertilizer” that no one finds pleasant. I hope you laugh when you read about me falling in it. I know you will cry when you see it heaped on the innocent. But we will also witness flowers that bloom in its midst and we will remember that—in time—exquisite beauty can rise above filth, mountains burst forth from the abyss and mighty civilizations grow out of rubble.
You can also follow my writing for the Huffington Post.
