Awakening at Lourdes: How An Unanswered Prayer Healed Our Family And Restored Our Faith is a new book by Accepting the Gift regular contributor Christy Wilkens. In it she shares how her pilgrimage to Lourdes with her husband and son Oscar brought her healing, although not in the way she expected. While not written exclusively…
I had the pleasure of speaking with my friend Kelly Mantoan about her new book, Better Than OK: Finding Joy as a Special Needs Parent. Kelly is the founder of Accepting the Gift, an apostolate for Catholic parents of special needs children, and this book is the culmination of years of reflection and peer mentorship…
“If God gave me to you and dad, then I hate God! I hate you! I wish I was an orphan! You are the worst parents in the world.” Welcome to our world. Our 11 year old son Luke has high functioning autism. Have you ever just tried to go about your day but are…
In December 2020, at the age of 43, I learned I was autistic. Really, I learned nothing new. I was simply given a new lens to understand the things I had always known to be true about myself. But without that lens, I had struggled to understand those truths, and even fought against and loathed…
Catholic parents of physically and intellectually disabled children often miss out on so many milestones that parents of typically developing children take for granted. Thankfully, the reception of the sacraments doesn’t need to be one of those missed moments. According to the USCCB document Guidelines For the Celebration of the Sacraments with Persons with Disabilities;…
On a rainy day in December, three months pregnant with my fourth baby, I sat in our minivan and began to sob. Our oldest child, Annie had just been diagnosed with regressive autism. A very rare and gut wrenching type of spectrum disorder. On the car ride home I remember texting one of my closest…
I really can’t think of a scarier thing for a doctor to say then, “Your child needs an organ transplant or she will die.” And yet, that was my reality, and it might be yours, if you’re reading this. I was nineteen years old when my doctors first broached the subject of a double-lung transplant…
This post is the second in a series about how to navigate the IEP process by teacher and special needs parent Judy Mankowski. Part 1 is here. Once the school district has evaluated your child, they will schedule an initial eligibility meeting. If your child is found to be eligible, there will need to be…
Today begins a new series by Judy Mankowski, a teacher and special needs parent, on how to navigate the IEP process. There are a few different scenarios through which a child enters the world of Special Education. The first is through aging out of Early Intervention (EI), into a special education pre-school program. This process…
As the founder of Accepting the Gift, I’m always on the lookout for resources that speak directly to Catholic parents of disabled children and the unique struggles they face. When I learned about The Caregiver’s Companion: A Christ Centered Journal to Nourish You Soul, I was eager to talk to its creators and learn more…
