Dear Special Needs Moms: I Know You Feel Invisible

“I see you running your child to therapy when friends take their kids to Little League. I see you slipping out the of conversation when your friends are all chiming in about milestones and test grades.”

‘He knew. Both his beautiful girls were in the fight of their lives.’: 17-year-old rallies behind his girlfriend after leukemia diagnosis, sister after Cystic Fibrosis diagnosis

“The pain came back with a vengeance. We watched our beautiful, vibrant, sassy daughter waste away. Then his girlfriend’s mother got an urgent phone call. ‘Can you please tell Wade?’ I held that 6-foot, 175-pound boy. I rocked him as he asked if he would lose her. He says they are his strength, and the girls say he is theirs.”

‘I just felt her fingers and toes moving!’ Those movements would be her last. I hold on to them every day.’: Mom loses daughter to Placenta Previa, says grief is a ‘life-long process’

“I sat, alone, doing an ultrasound which looked like nothing. I’d lost all of my amniotic fluid, but my baby was still alive. The doctor told me she had a 1% chance of survival and to not keep any hope. ‘After delivery, what do you want to do with her? Here’s the arrangement options.’ In my mind, I was still holding onto that 1%. It took 2 hours to fully deliver her. It was quiet, sorrowful. I leaned up at one point and could see her legs, lifeless.”

‘My closest friends decided to leave me forever. My core group was gone. My heart was broken. New friends? It is terrifying to put yourself out there. Girls can be mean. Women can be vicious.’

“I can prepare and clean my house for 3 hours the 1st few times you come for a visit. But I can only pretend it is usually this clean for so long before you find out the truth. One day you will stop in because you forgot your sweater, and you will see the underwear one of my boys flung on the couch and the dinner dishes piled up from last night.”