OMG! Jessica and I are featured in Exceptional Parent Magazine! 💛
“A Home of Her Own” is about hope, independence, and keeping an open mind and heart as we plan for our children’s futures. I hope our story encourages families to explore what’s possible—one step at a time.
Category: Disability & Family Life
How to Help Your Child with Special Needs Engage with the Arts
It can be hard to know where to start. The paint sets get knocked over, the music is too loud, the instructions feel vague — and suddenly art time becomes stress time. But for parents of children with special needs, the arts aren’t just nice-to-have activities. They’re lifelines. Creative expression offers structure without rigidity, emotion without pressure, and joy without preconditions. If your child struggles with communication, sensory integration, or focus, art might become their clearest and safest language. What matters is that you’re looking for a way in.
How FaceTime Keeps Us Close to Our Nonverbal Daughter Jess
Are you snowed in this morning? Here’s a heartWARMING blog to warm YOUR Hearts!
FaceTime with Jess: Staying Connected with our Nonverbal Daughter: A Very Short Story
I Am Not Defined by Disability: Seeing our Daughter Through Strength, not Disability
Our daughter Jessica is 43 and has severe intellectual disabilities. This is a parent’s perspective of defining our daughter by her abilities and strengths, seeing past the disability.
Seizures and Bravery
Bravery isn’t always loud—it’s Mitch’s calm, my panic-to-strength, and Jessica facing the unimaginable every time
Two Years for a Teeth Cleaning: A Dental Story with a Happy Ending
After 2 years of waiting, a confusing policy, a last-minute call, and one amazing doctor, Jessica finally made it to the OR— A Dental Story
UNIQUE Little Red Book: Our Daughter, with a Severe Intellectual Disability, Story in an International Book 📕
A rare genetic diagnosis gave us a name, a global community—and a spot in the not-so-little UNIQUE Red Book.
Recipe for Disaster with a Happy Ending : Sibling Advocacy for Our Daughter With Severe Intellectual Disabilities
A choking scare in 2012 changed everything. Our son, Alex, instinct led to new safety protocols—and saved his sister Jessica from disaster.
Happy Birthday, Jessica
Happy Birthday, Jess – Chapter 1 – Raising Jess: A Story of Hope- April 11, 1982, The beginning of our story. As the months passed, the doctor continued to assure us that Jess was fine. I continued to question all her delays. Welcome to Motherhood.
Jessica and Medicaid
Many ask, ‘How are proposed Medicaid cuts going to affect your daughter Jessica?’ I don’t mind the question, but I wish I had an answer.
#Medicaid #DisabilityRights #Healthcare #MedicaidCuts #RaisingJess #NYS #OPWDD #Parenting #Mothering #Disability
My View: Life’s Battles Continue Regardless of Circumstances: Medical Appointments with our Daughter with Severe Intellectual Disabilities 
As seen in Buffalo News, Jessica’s hygienist writes a new chapter each visit— “How to dodge bites, flails while using sharp tools!” 🦷
Thankful for Superhero Healthcare Folks: Bones, Scopes & Hopes
An essay about scopes and Jessica’s colonoscopy? EWWW – Don’t despair; no details are given other than a heartwarming story about healthcare providers’ unique kindness and compassion. And we are talking about Jessica, our daughter was severe, intellectual disabilities , and things are never how you expect with our Jess.
Finally Seeing Our Daughter Jessica After 54 Days Apart
We have all lost a lot of control of our day-to-day “normal” lives during the Pandemic. Slowly we are trying to regain our footing and although things may be different that does not mean we will be worse off. I hope the lessons learned from this scary and unprecedented experience will lead us to a better tomorrow. I look forward to holding Jessica’s hands, receiving huge hugs and I will even tolerate Jess playfully pulling my messy, out of control hair!