Adults and severe cognitive disabilities

Ack!  I am getting more and more frustrated as time goes on at the discrimination, fear and and lack of acceptance of adults with cognitive disabilities.  It might seem odd that when some of my kids have been adults for a long time that this is becoming more of a problem for us.  It might be that we have been living in a protected bubble for so long by having had professionals surrounding us that have known us for decades.  This ended last year when we lost our paediatrician and the big kids lost our family doctor.  The biggest part of our family doctor's charm was that not only is he an excellent physician but he was raised with an older brother with severe autism.  My kids loved him and he couldn't have been better with them.

I wish I could say it was the general public that was having more of an issue in regards to adults with severe cognitive disabilities but unfortunately it has been more professionals.  Doctors and dentists both inpatient and in the community, social workers etc the list goes on.  These are people that should know better however their fear, stereotyping and even intolerance exist none the less.

The hour is late so any hope of coherence will soon be lost but this is a subject I want to write more on.

Let me leave it at this....adults with severe cognitive disabilities are just as loveable, adorable, valuable and any other positive adjective you can think of the day after their eighteenth birthday as they were the day before.  They deserve the same degree of compassion and respect as any other adult with the added twist of requiring an acceptance of the fact that cognitively they are not adults. This fact should not make them scary.

         

adorable

What do you say?  Postcard worthy photo or indication of world's most reckless mother?

I would suggest you blame it on my youth at the time but unfortunately I wasn't young enough for that excuse to hold water.

Let's just go with it's an adorable shot of two adorable babies sixteen years ago.

Again

So this is happening.  Again.

Last year was the year of the vapour barrier.  Three bedrooms worth of drywall coming down, trouble spots treated, vapour barrier installed, drywall up, mudding, sanding, painting, baseboards, clean up etc etc.  Don't I sound knowledgeable?  I know right?  I should have some grasp of the process being that we have been through it enough times.  Gratefully it is not me doing the work!  My efforts are better spent crabbing about it all being that a person should stick with what they know....

Our problem is that the house has about three different ages.  The front part of the house is I believe over fifty years old.  Turns out houses have a best before date and we have reached it at the front.  Moisture is getting in and growing mold in corners.  Rumour has it that mold is bad for a person plus black is not a good colour on walls.  The back part of the house is eleven years old.  We had renos done organized by a charitable organization and completed by local builders.  They gratefully added on nine hundred square feet all of which is wheelchair accessible.  Not a day goes by that I am not appreciative of the generosity of strangers.  We are a lucky lucky family.

The basement has been done a couple of times with water issues, development, renovations of the early development. You get the picture.

This will be done quickly, efficiently and properly so my whining will be short lived.  At least in regards to this issue.  My talent is that I can always find something to whine about.  It's a gift really.

1993

This was us the I think the spring of 1993.  There was just the four darlings and me.  I find it hilarious if not ridiculous that I was fighting the "too many kids" stigma back then too.

This picture would have been four years before the teens were born.  One laughed when shown the picture, the other was "oh my Gawd Mum!  You look soooo much better now!  You look waaay younger than you did then!"

In my head I bought her a car.

It will soon be high school graduation for the teens.  You know what that means right?
Grad dress shopping!
One has a dress and the other and I have been internet shopping to get a feel for styles before we venture out in the next couple of weeks.
I think my eyes are on fire.  Very few of the sites list the cost of the dresses.  Experience tells me that is not a good thing....
The search continues

Happy Birthday Mum

 Happy what would have been your 76th Birthday Mum!  First one in Heaven.

 Facebook would refer to our relationship as "complicated" for a good lot of my life but I loved you.

 Just as you were beginning to try and take bolder steps in your senior years you were denied the time to do so.
I wonder if there are iPads in Heaven and if you figured out how to iMessage.  If you have shoot me one every now and again or is that you dropping quarters places around my house?

Your little dog is fine.  Bill still gets him his Wendy's hamburger when he's out.  Damn dog and his need to run down the alley leaving you to slip on the ice.  I blame the little bugger you know....

Together again.  It was only for you that as soon as you spoke she immediately cooed and laughed.  Only for you.

Give her kisses from me.

                                                     Could you have been more cute?

Happy Birthday Mum January 3, 1939 - April 9, 2014

Christmas Eve letter to Santa

Letter to Santa.  First Donovan tried his hand at some printing but the stress became too much for him so Malia took over.  I will admit that I offered my two cents into what the letter might contain.

Of course there were the obligatory cookies, a choice between M&M cookies of shortbread.  It appears Santa had a hankering for shortbread.  The reindeer only nibbled on the carrots.  The chocolate milk seemed to go down smoothly.

Of course Santa always takes the time to write back.  Sorry if he was late getting to any of your houses.

 The letter back was a little worse for wear by the time I thought I should take a picture.  It's a little hard to read.  It appears Santa was afraid he was running out of room and started writing smaller and smaller.  I suppose the late hour or very early morning such as it might have been when he was here might have played a role.

My kids were happy.  I hope all of yours were too.