Crystal Ball

Today I was playing around with the crystal ball that was actually the end of a curtain rod that fell off. I had it sat on my desk and saw my kids wanting to play with it. I already had my camera in hand; I was loading it to figure out what to do for Mono Monday... and I saw this opportunity. The girl covering her ears is my almost 11 year old daughter Hailey who has severe Autism. She wants the ball really badly and is excited to see it, so she is covering her ears. The shirtless 7 year old in the background is my son. He is a ton of fun. He is in another blip where he is upside down and flashing a smile through his legs. I wished I had more time to get a better shot and play with the settings on the camera, but Hailey was just too excited and I had to work with what I had. 

Today's theme was "15 minutes of fame". What was or would be my 15 minutes of fame? I would have to say that it would have to be that I would be best known as a mom and the journey I have had as one so far.

Not pictured is my son Carter who is 13. Ten years ago he suffered a traumatic brain injury that took about a 4th of his brain. He is amazing and funny and simply a miracle. He died twice, but came back a fighter. He was on the news and we have a large group of friends and family who followed his story through my blog at www.carepages.com (his page name is CarterCardinal). Check it out if you want a good cry.

When Carter was in the hospital trying to recover/rehab from his horrible accident, we learned that Hailey, who was only 10 months old, had autism, Duane's Syndrome and also had a Sensory Integration disorder. 

When I was pregnant with Riley, I had two large thyroid tumors that had to have surgery to be removed. Thank goodness it wasn't cancer!

We wanted 4 kiddos so that it would make it a nicely rounded out family with 2 typical kids to help the 2 a-typical kids as they grew and as they became adults. We tried and tried for a 4th. We lost 3 kids in between Riley and his little brother Mackenzie. But we got our 4th!

We thought our journey was complete when it came to becoming parents. And... and our luck (which we really believe was good luck this time) gave us little Brooklyn who arrived 7 weeks ago. Yep, that makes a very large family with 5 kids.

If you ask any of my family, friends, acquaintances or anyone who has ever heard of me, they start with saying that I am a "mother of special needs kids. I don't get "She's talented" or "She's a photographer" or "She's a graphic designer" ... I am identified as the mom who has the brain injured son Carter, The Autistic Daughter Hailey and a litter of others.... and I am ok with that!