Finally. Some clarity.
As I have mentioned in my last few posts, this summer has been a doozy. (How many more times can I bring it up?) I feel like a lot of things have been cloudy, blurry, fuzzy - but then today everything came sharply into focus for the first time in a long time.
I will spare the details, but I went out of my comfort zone and sent people who I know Have connections to the special needs community private messages about something I felt was very concerning that they were posting about mental health on Facebook. In it there are a list of behaviors - kicking nurses and doctors, eating plants, escaping, licking glass, padded walls - and then you tag whoever first shows up when you type in a name. It’s “hysterical” apparently
I pointed out to them - people who I know care for Grayson - that he fits into many of these categories as far as behaviors go. And that it is not hysterical to those who live with these behaviors.
It went over about as well as you can expect, but I am proud of myself for speaking up. I don’t do that often because I don’t care for conflict but sometimes things just get to me - even after a night’s sleep which is what I gave this. Or four hours sleep which is what I typically get ;) Mike and I talked about this at length - he’s the pragmatic one, the cooler head that prevails compared to my red hot temper, and even he was upset.
I started out as a special education major - now I understand why. I was very involved in the MH classroom in high school. I cried when I heard a teacher make a short bus joke. Mike and I valued those with special needs long before Grayson came along - we eradicated the r word from our vocabulary, Mike even stood up during his training and encouraged his classmates not to use the word either. We never knew why this was so important to us. Now maybe that makes sense that in a way we were being prepared for the road ahead of us.
So what has this brought into focus for me? If you are not with us, you are against us. If we don’t share the same value system when it comes to mental health and special needs, then we better part ways.
Because we are cultivating something beautiful here in our family - I don’t know what it is - I don’t know where it’s going to take us - I don’t know what God has in store for this family, but it’s going to be really really good and it’s going to change the world. And we don’t need negativity around us holding us back.
And yeah. About Facebook. I changed my password and signed off. I deleted the app for that and Facebook messenger off my phone. Maybe someday I will be back but for now, we are officially on a break. I am tired of the Facebook culture where you can say whatever you want and then get offended when it hurts peoples feelings. There are consequences to our decisions - to what we say. And the consequence might just be that I block you when it’s all said and done.
Now I am off to change the world! Or maybe just put my kids to bed - one step at a time here ;)
I will spare the details, but I went out of my comfort zone and sent people who I know Have connections to the special needs community private messages about something I felt was very concerning that they were posting about mental health on Facebook. In it there are a list of behaviors - kicking nurses and doctors, eating plants, escaping, licking glass, padded walls - and then you tag whoever first shows up when you type in a name. It’s “hysterical” apparently
I pointed out to them - people who I know care for Grayson - that he fits into many of these categories as far as behaviors go. And that it is not hysterical to those who live with these behaviors.
It went over about as well as you can expect, but I am proud of myself for speaking up. I don’t do that often because I don’t care for conflict but sometimes things just get to me - even after a night’s sleep which is what I gave this. Or four hours sleep which is what I typically get ;) Mike and I talked about this at length - he’s the pragmatic one, the cooler head that prevails compared to my red hot temper, and even he was upset.
I started out as a special education major - now I understand why. I was very involved in the MH classroom in high school. I cried when I heard a teacher make a short bus joke. Mike and I valued those with special needs long before Grayson came along - we eradicated the r word from our vocabulary, Mike even stood up during his training and encouraged his classmates not to use the word either. We never knew why this was so important to us. Now maybe that makes sense that in a way we were being prepared for the road ahead of us.
So what has this brought into focus for me? If you are not with us, you are against us. If we don’t share the same value system when it comes to mental health and special needs, then we better part ways.
Because we are cultivating something beautiful here in our family - I don’t know what it is - I don’t know where it’s going to take us - I don’t know what God has in store for this family, but it’s going to be really really good and it’s going to change the world. And we don’t need negativity around us holding us back.
And yeah. About Facebook. I changed my password and signed off. I deleted the app for that and Facebook messenger off my phone. Maybe someday I will be back but for now, we are officially on a break. I am tired of the Facebook culture where you can say whatever you want and then get offended when it hurts peoples feelings. There are consequences to our decisions - to what we say. And the consequence might just be that I block you when it’s all said and done.
Now I am off to change the world! Or maybe just put my kids to bed - one step at a time here ;)
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