About Teal & Jen ... How was "For Our Special Kids" born?
Do you know how everyone says your world changes when you have a child? On the 12th of July, my world made one of those changes. But, it didn't really get turned upside down, flipped over, smacked around, and shaken up until November of the following year when we got "the diagnosis."
As you know, getting the diagnosis causes immediate panic, denial, crushing heaviness, silent tears that turn to lonely sobs, overwhelming frustration, and a life-altering moment in time when you realize life will never be what you had dreamed. The guilt I carry from that realization still lingers. I can still put myself in that very moment. The pit of my stomach still remembers hearing those words. The ache and the shock.
I would never be the mom I wanted to be before "the diagnosis." I have a child with special needs. I am a mom of a child with special needs. That makes me different. I'm not sure why I was shocked? I have always been different. My whole life I never really fit in with all the others. Why would this experience be any different?
From the moment my little 2 lb 1 oz miracle baby girl took her 1st breath, my world was different. The normal hospital stay with flowers and cards and family visiting and "passing the baby" didn't happen. Many of you know...and can appreciate...that I couldn't pick her up, touch her baby soft skin, love on her, whisper our dreams for her in her ear any time I wanted. Everything was timed. Everything was on a schedule and I wasn't setting the schedule. Our incredible NICU nurses were the ones who told me when I could be a "mom." I didn't realize the impact of that lack of natural, easy-going "mom-ness" until some time after...as in years. Not being able to love on the one you so desperately want to love on when you want to love on them does something to you. And, I'm still trying to figure out what that exactly means in our life. Alas...I digress. (I do think we should have this conversation at some point on the show because I'd love to hear your thoughts.)
Onto the How and Why of "For Our Special Kids." ... While I still wasn't 100% on board with the diagnosis, I knew that our daughter was going to have a different than expected sort of life. My husband and I, independent of one another, started the research. Yes, stay up too late, find yourself in a rabbit hole, type of researching. You know it, because you did it. I was looking for non-conventional solutions while my husband followed a more analytical road. I looked for anything "non-pharmaceutical" based, anything "non-chemical." He looked for science, studies, numbers. But we both looked and looked and looked.
It seemed I couldn't find anything I was looking for. Well, that is, I couldn't seem to find any information easily. It all seemed so hard to find, confusing, too medical, too woo-woo, or too negative. I didn't want to drop into a chat room or FB page and start reading about people's journeys either. Everyone's journey scared me. I wanted bite-sized bits of information...lots of different information from all perspectives and experiences. I wanted bits of information about things I didn't even know existed. How do you go about researching something you don't even know exists?
There wasn't one place I could go to quickly scroll and learn information about a variety of different solutions in short, personal snippets. That was what I wanted. So, that is what Teal and I and so many outstanding moms, dads, families, practitioners, healers, experts, authors, doctors, mediums, astrologers, etc. have tried to create here at For Our Special Kids.
I hope you have fun scrolling and learning. But most importantly, I hope you find a little snippet that positively impacts you and your child.
For everything, we do as parents is… "For Our Special Kids.”
Thanks for being here,
Jen & Teal
The Magic of Teal
Teal is the inspiration for this podcast.
Teal isn't freely walking yet. She isn't fully talking yet.
She's extremely mobile and extremely communicative. She gets to where she needs to be in her own way. Teal makes many words and phrases. We just don't always understand them. She's a master at communicating what she wants and how she wants it and who she wants it from.
Teal is an Empath.
Teal is a Healer.
Teal is Telepathic.
She is an extremely Old Soul.
Teal sees the world in a very different way. In her world, there are more colors, more vibrations, more laughter, and far more joy.
Teal has opened my eyes to the magic and the wonder of this world we live in. And I truly hope one day she can come on this podcast with me to share her story. I know it's one worth waiting for…