When you find something that works, you should pass it along. Parenting is tough work without having to constantly reinvent the wheel. 1) Use scotch tape for cutting a toddler’s bangs. Cutting little kid hair is hard because they wiggle and squirm, and mine HATE the little pieces of hair falling on their faces which is why.. this totally works! She can move and chatter as much as she wants and the straight line stays straight. Just cut along the... Read more
Once upon a time, I was the mother of the shyest child who ever lived, at least she seemed that way to me. She ran and hid from strangers. She became hysterical when unknown people spoke to her, and teared up if they dared to notice that she was even in the room. She spent every birthday candle wish on the dream of invisibility. If only she could go through life unnoticed… Then she lost her legs, and in return... Read more
I’m on my way home from a speaking thing in Portland, OR, and I keep thinking about the amazing events of this past week. On Sunday evening we had not only a denial letter from our insurance company for Ella’s wheelchair wheels, but also a denial of the appeal. This weekend, we have blanket approval for everything we requested (even the cosmetic things we never expected them to cover) and a Swear Jar holding enough money to easily cover the... Read more
After five months of paperwork, and two denials, it only took two days of a full-on media blitz for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas to cry “Uncle!” On Monday, I received a phone call from Jackie in BCBS’s Escalation Department (that’s the “oh cr*p this is a social media nightmare!” department.) She informed me that they had gotten a “waterfall of tweets” and were pulling Ella’s file for an “Urgent review.” She told me that it had been... Read more
Last June, a dear friend of mine raised a good sized amount of money to allow us to buy a very good secondhand wheelchair and pay her medical bills while we waited on the doctors and insurance companies to figure out that Ella really, really couldn’t walk. I researched it as best as I could, and was delighted to find one of the top brands for sale in our area with seat dimensions that were just about right. It’s served... Read more
Today is the 179th anniversary of the Fall of the Alamo, and it has me thinking… Once upon a time in Texas (which is how all good stories should begin) a group of Texians (I don’t know when we ditched the “i”, but we are the better for it) at the beginning of the Texas Revolution faced a difficult decision, return their cannon to the Mexican government or fight to the death to keep it. Our boy, Stephen F. Austin... Read more
When I was in school, my mother got almost weekly notes from my teachers about how much I talked in class. I spent hours sitting quietly in the back of the room, or with my head on my desk, in an effort to stop my constant chatting with my classmates. My poor Mama would shake her head at me and say, “Nobody is going to hire you to just sit around and talk to your friends all day.” Well, guess... Read more
My kids brought home Rice Bowls from Sunday School this weekend along with a note explaining the annual charity drive. This morning, I sat down with my youngest boys and explained about Lenten almsgiving and how CRS uses the Rice Bowl campaign to feed the hungry. At the end of our talk, my 7-year-old went upstairs and came back with his wallet and piggy bank. He emptied them both out into the little paper box/bowl. I knew how long he’d... Read more
The lists of the 21 Copts martyred by ISIS had only 20 names on them. The Ahram-Canadian News revealed the reason why – he wasn’t a Coptic Christian. He was a non-Christian from Chad, who died in Christ. It is being reported that when his captors asked him to renounce Jesus Christ, he looked at his fellow prisoners and stated “their God is my God.” In saying so, he chose death. In choosing death, he chose Life. With one simple... Read more
Today is World Rare Disease Day. I’m not sure that that even applies to us. If we go with the most popular theory of the moment, Acute Flaccid Myelitis, it absolutely does. It used to be thought of as a rare effect of Enterovirus D68, but then the CDC realized that less than 20% of patients actually were testing positive for ED68, so either it was infecting people but not testing positive for itself, or it was something else. In... Read more
Shoved to Them
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