Blog
Medication – Help or Hindrance
For 23 years, I have been learning how difficult it can be to separate an autism diagnosis from everything else. When your child is profoundly autistic, nonverbal, and unable to tell you what he is feeling, every new behavior becomes a puzzle. I’ve previously shared how Skyler’s digestive… Read More
Expressing and Feeling Emotions
There are many moments in this profound, nonverbal autism parenting journey that leave me completely stumped…like trying to solve a puzzle without all the pieces. Last week, Skyler attended his second group Spelling to Communicate (S2C) session. Since Skyler has only ever done S2C sessions individually, we were… Read More
God Doesn’t Waste our Stories – He Layers Them
I’m currently writing the third book in my Purposeful Journey series, which is centered around autism in adulthood, and throughout the process, I’ve found myself continually reflecting on the fact that God doesn’t waste our stories – He layers them. Each of my memoirs in the trilogy were… Read More
Never Ending Search for Respite
While we are pleased with the number of services available for adults with disabilities in our new home state of CO, one that has continued to elude us throughout Skyler’s entire life is respite. Over the years we’ve met countless providers, filled out paperwork, waited on lists, and… Read More
Don’t Blame Everything on Autism
Tomorrow morning, Skyler will undergo his third colonoscopy since being diagnosed with Crohn’s disease in 2018. It’s a routine procedure designed to help his medical team determine whether his medications are working and whether his disease is finally under some control. Like every parent of a child with… Read More
Who will care for them when we’re gone?
My 21-year-old daughter and I were chatting the other day and one of her questions caught me off guard. She asked if I had decided on an age when her brother would move somewhere outside of our home. At first, I wasn’t quite sure how to answer. The… Read More
Having Faith and Trusting in God’s Plan
There are seasons in life when everything feels uncertain—when decisions carry weight and the future feels like a question mark. And then there are seasons when, somehow, everything begins to fall into place in a way that feels too intentional to be coincidence. Since making the decision last… Read More
Pushing Through
There’s a certain kind of strength many women carry that rarely gets questioned. We push through. We power on. We ignore the signals—because someone always needs us more. A few days ago, I was admitted to the hospital for an unexpected appendectomy. For over a month, I had… Read More
Skyler turns 23!!
Happy 23rd Birthday, Skyler 🥳 What a year it’s been. Just one year ago, you were facing one of the hardest transitions of your life — aging out of your autism center, leaving behind everything familiar, and stepping into months of uncertainty, with no programs, no routine, and… Read More
You’re Doing Better Than You Think
Last weekend I had the honor of delivering the keynote at the Rising Moms Caregiver Retreat and I left that room feeling incredibly inspired. When you gather a room full of caregiving moms together, you quickly realize something powerful: these are women who carry more than most people… Read More
Managing Expectations While Still Fighting for a Safe Future
One of the hardest balances caregivers walk is managing expectations while still holding hope for a safe and meaningful future. My nonverbal, profoundly autistic 22-year-old son, Skyler, is enjoying his adult day program and opportunities to be out in the community. But during a recent outing, he became… Read More
The Many Hats I Wear (and the One I Never Take Off)
When I first saw this caricature of myself, I smiled. It’s fun. It’s colorful. It captures a lot of what people see when they look at my life—writer, speaker, podcast host, sales leader, advocate. The microphone. The books. The ideas. The stages. The conversations. And yes, those hats… Read More
The Loneliest Part of Caregiving We Rarely Talk About
One of the hardest parts of being a parent caregiver isn’t just the exhaustion or the burnout—it’s the quiet loss of connection. And almost no one talks about it. We spend our days managing the pressures of caring for our special needs children, and over time our world… Read More
Letting Go… One Brave Step at a Time
When we moved to Colorado 6 months ago, we did so with intention and purpose. We uprooted our lives for adult services, programs, and opportunities for our 22-year-old, nonverbal autistic son, Skyler — with a future in mind that felt supported and possible. We arrived with concrete ideas… Read More
New Year, New Journey
I like to step into each new year with a heart full of gratitude for everything that brought me to this moment—and with genuine eagerness for what is still unfolding. Not because the road behind us has been easy, but because it has shaped me in ways I… Read More
