LIFES CURVEBALL

When you set out to have a family you don't for one moment ever think that you will have a child with a disability. You might know of people with disabilities or people with children with disabilities but it never occurs to you that it will happen to you, so when it does happen to us unfortunate few, I can assure you it is gutting. We weren't born prepared to face life with a child with a disability, just as people aren't born perpared to face life with dehabilitating diseases or any other of lifes curveballs.

I've had people say to me, even someone in my own family "I don't know how you do it (raise a child with a disability) - I could never do it......." Well, like I said, just like anyone else I wasn't born prepared for this, and its not like I had a choice. You just do the best you can with what you've got, thats all you can do, thats all anyone can ever do............

Thats not politically correct

For those of you that object to me classifying my child as something other than "normal" (as in the last post) I say get over it. The western world has taken politically correctness way too far. Corbin is quite simply not your normal/average child, I mean if he was normal then he would be walking just like 99% of children his age, so therefore why not call it as it is??? Calling him "physically challanged" is not going to change a thing, so I see no point in getting caught up on the labels.

WHY ABR?

Almost 4 years ago, when Corbin was 2.5 years old, his paediatrician told us that it would be highly unlikely Corbin would ever walk independently. Naturally I was devastated to say the least because until then I had naivety on my side and was pinning my hopes on it just happening one day.

It is so hard to describe what it feels like as a mother/parent to have someone tell you that your child with never be "normal" or lead a "normal" life. Crushing, gutting, like someone ripping your heart out and stomping on it, and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it!!

I was truly gutted and naturally had a few emotional "issues" to deal with. My way of dealing with it was to ask God what to do. I fervently prayed for the answer (now I'm not overly religious but I do know that there is a higher being and I call him God). Was this Corbins lot in life, was I meant to just accept it or was there something else I could do, I needed some guidance, I needed a sign.

After 1 week it happened, out of the blue there was a newspaper article (in the Southland Times - the one and only newspaper in Invercargill) about a local mum who was doing ABR for her son with CP. To further put this in perspective, at the time there were only 2 families in NZ doing ABR and 1 just happened to be in our neck of the woods and just so happened to contact the newspaper that week, and I just so happened to read the paper on that particular day which is not something I normally do...... I believe in signs, do you?

I looked up the website quoted in the article and was amazed at what I saw and instantly thought it was too good to be true. My gut instinct told me that this is what I had to do but naturally enough for me my head procrastinated and had to "ponder" the idea for quite some time. 5 months later I went to my first ABR clinic in Sydney, Australia.

My Darling Boy

I thought it was time I figured out how to put a photo of the major topic of conversation, namely Master Corbin, on to this blog. I'm not extremely computer literate mainly because I have no time to play or experiment, so here goes...

Easy........ This is Corbin enjoying the beach, which I must add is not in Invercargill, NZ where we seem to be having yet another Winter instead of Summer!!!!!!

Back in to it

Happy New Year to everyone. I sure hope this year is better than our last one. Its amazing how a new year can bring with it new hope and possibilities for the year ahead. Unfortunately the dawning of a new year only happens once a year. When you are a parent living with your childs disability on a daily basis, sometimes that feeling of renewed hope for the future is needed more than once a year. Who am I kidding, you dont have to have a child with a disability, you just have to be a parent to need this feeling of renewed hope more than once a year!!!!

Well, now that the Christmas and New Year festivities are all over its time to get back into the ABR way of life. For me that means a couple of hours of manual ABR every night when Master Corbin is asleep. Its hard to get back into the groove again, but if I dont do it, no one else will.......