Skip to main content

I got it from my Momma

In honor of Mother's day this Sunday and one of my followers question I decided to write a post dedicated to what my momma has done for me in regards to my disability.

I must say my momma is the strongest person  I know and the way she researched and advocated for me is incredible.

At the age of 3 she went to the school district and asked for ways to get me involved in preschool and socializing with other kiddos. I was in occupational and physical therapy pretty much since I got diagnosed. She was always looking for the best thing for me and the best ways to make me stronger. I was in therapeutic horseback riding from the 2nd grade until high school. She would drive me to San Juan Capistrano once a week after school and let me say that was definitely my favorite kind of therapy :)

Despite that, socially my mom always was open with me and pushed me to stand up for myself. I will never forget this one time around the 3rd/4th grade we were in the mall and I was in my stroller (a stroller for individuals with disabilities who are older). There was a girl that came up to her and I and asked my mom "what's wrong with her". I don't really remember what she said back but I remember her pushing me on and I looked back and she had tears in her eyes. When we got home and she put me to bed that night I broke down asking her why I was different. She told me you know what people are going to ask questions and it is up to you to explain to them why and that you are just like them but do things differently.

One thing I would tell mommas who have kids with disabilities is to maybe find a support group for your child or get them involved with kids like them. Even though I was accepted by all the kids at my school I do wish I had a group of friends that could relate to what I go through. However, you mommas out there who have kiddos with disabilities I hope you know that you can take your kiddo to all these therapies but the best thing you can do is to be there for your child and answer those hard questions and teach them that they are beautiful for being different and how to explain that to others. That was the best thing my momma did is to teach me to have a voice.

My mom is my best friend who has raised me to be the strong woman I am today. She did not do things for me. Once I got older she pushed me to advocate for myself and how to let others know about my disability. I think that is the best thing she could have done. She pushed me to always try before asking for help.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

What Does It Mean to Have CP?

You know this month is CP awareness month so I thought it would be fitting to write about what I feel everyday..So here we go When you wake up and get out of bed and think man my leg muscles are tight. When you walk into a store and you get the looks. The looks of curiosity, looks of wow that girl sure walks different, looks that make you feel like you just don't fit in. When you go to pay and you are struggling getting that money or credit card out and you start to blush because you know that cashier or the person behind you is thinking "that poor girl". When you are asked to repeat yourself 2-3 times because that person can't understand you and you just want to say never mind. When you have to buy new shoes more often than normal because you ruined the toe part of your shoe or you have a hole on the bottom due to walking toe-heel instead of heel-toe. When you have to use adaptive tools like a button hook. When you can't open a water bottle or you spill your dr...

Struggle is Real with Adult CP

 Here is something that frustrates me about the state of California. Basically since I was diagnosed with CP I went to CCS (California Children Services). They provide free occupational and physical therapy until your 21. This is so awesome and I would go twice a week until high school where I would do more check ins because I was becoming more independent and doing so well I did not need it as much. Now I know what your thinking...um Nicole why are you frustrated with this? Well did you noticed I bolded until your 21? This is the issue. Once you turn 21 they are like bye bye good luck with the rest of your life. It has been difficult because you get dropped off and on your own without any recommendations of where to go next in life.  Most of you know that hot yoga has been a life saver for me and has basically become my physical therapy and it has been great until...covid. Due to the shutdown it also caused a shut down of my body because my physical therapy (aka yoga) was tak...

So What Did You Do In Kenya?

Jambo!! I am made it back from a life changing trip in Kenya! I will be posting a few blog posts about stories that happened there but first I wanted to give you all an overview/timeline of what I did everyday over there July 7 - We landed at 2 in the morning! As we are all waiting to get our luggage we notice that no new luggage is coming out. Hmmmm what is wrong?? Yeah well all 90  of us lost  our luggage. Our flight out of LAX was delayed which made us have to rush to our next plane in Turkey. The airport personnel decided they did not have time to transfer our luggage to the next plan which ended up for us not getting our luggage. We got like an hour of sleep and then we had to wake up and start our day. We went to pangani which is the main school we worked at. We were greeted and had an opening ceremony from all of the kids. Then we got to take a social worker and walk around the Mathare Valley. We were able to go into one of the shanty's and pray over a sick girl ...