Group pride

I'm a co-moderator for a support group that's been known as the ABS Support Group for a long time. ABS stands for Amniotic Band Syndrome -- a diagnosis many kids get when they're born missing pieces of limbs. It's what my doctor said immediately. I'm now very skeptical with that diagnosis... And I lean more towards a vascular incident that restricted Jordan's blood flow just at the moment that it affected her arm. Anyway, this week we announced that ABS Support is now called Sammy's Friends in honor of the founder of the group's daughter.

Anyway, this has been one of the online groups where I've found a lot of support. I tend to talk a bunch with the parents on the group and in the last few months, I've become a moderator on there with six other moms. During that time, we've just gone through a big brainstorming process to name the group differently so we can produce business cards and other stuff so more parents can learn about our group and find that there are a lot of adults, parents and kids who can offer support, advice and friendship.

So, one of the moderators put together this really cute logo and we're close to putting together a cool business card. I can share it at doctors offices and prosthetic groups around my area so I can reach out to more kids and parents in town. I'm pretty excited.

Newsroom changes

Every semester I visit classes to talk about what I do, explain how they can be better journalists or advise students how they can do well in the newsroom where I work. A lot of these journalism students have a chance to sit in the newsroom and shadow different positions... And lately I've seen myself hanging out near these students and realize they don't know a ton about me. They don't have to. But every once and a while I go on and on talking about Jordan and Cameron when I realize they have no idea what I'm talking about. So when I start talking about therapy, they think I mean I'm going to a psychologist-type therapist. When I'm really talking about Jordan's physical or occupational therapist. Then when I start talking about arms and prosthetics, I just get funny looks.

A couple of days I pulled out a picture from my camera and was showing it off to someone and I offhanded said: "Here's a picture of the cutest one-armed baby in the world!" And this girl spun around and looked at me in horror. I just looked at her and said: "No really. She really is cute." Then I showed her the picture of Jordan.

I don't feel like I need to run around and tell people my entire life story, but my work life and home life mesh. Probably since Randy and I work together. But I talk about work and home all the time and I'm not in the mood to explain myself all the time... But I also don't want my world to be secret. I hope other parents with limb different kids can know that when they read Jordan's blog, that they aren't alone. I hope my students can learn that a child who is "different" isn't really that different... But there are challenges that they would have never known if I wasn't so open about it. I also think keeping a sense of humor about a missing limb keeps the "uncomfort zone" less uncomfortable.

I'm not exactly sure what I'm babbling about... Except that I hope I can be a public voice of a birth defect I really never knew existed. I was dancing around with Jordan this morning thinking how awesome she is. I wouldn't change a thing. But no one writes how-to guides about how to raise my kids... And they certainly don't tell you how to raise a self-confident, awesome, caring, limb different kid. And the only thing I can do is make sure as many people in Jordan's world know about it and are as comfortable about it as I am.