I Am Many Things

I am many things.

Writer.

Artist.

Public Speaker.

Advocacy Leader.

Mom.

The last two are interrelated. 

I advocate for your child and mine.

And being in the trenches is anything but fun.

In parenting children with needs, advocacy is … 

Humbling, humiliating,  and defeating. 

It will take up all of your time and emotional energy.

You’re walked on, treated as an inconvenience, received with suspicion. Sometimes a partner, other times handled and treated as though you’re dangerous and combustible.

Never truly invited to the party, sometimes an ally - on occasion a threat.

And the reality is, your heart is with your child. Your intention is only for the best, their best. And as a parent, you are the expert on your child. 

You’re simply fulfilling your parental responsibility.

And yet, you’re an inconvenience when you knock on the door of equity and advocacy and are concurrently reduced to a minuscule piece of the success puzzle when gains and wins are made.

I mentioned in my supportive social group Christina’s Comrades, that I keep waiting on this “advocacy plateau”. A time when I won’t have to fight so damn hard.

But it's been made plain. By both my disciple comrades and my experience. 

That time is never going to arrive.

We talk about acceptance as a caregiver to a child with a development or medical diagnosis as accepting the diagnosis and its prognosis. But it’s more. It’s accepting that you will have to fight tooth and nail, indefinitely.

Lucky for Gia, her mama is gritty as hell and she happens to carry a big sledge hammer, ready at any given moment to break any barriers that prevent my child (and yours) from living a happy and safe life. 

After all, don’t we all have the same rights?

-Frankly Christina 💋