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| All rights reserved. All pictures and artwork ©JMcMullen 2006 |
I guess y'all would like to know a little about me. Well, I'm a Christian,
mother of a special needs child, wife, caregiver to my parents and an
artist. I graduated from Nazareth College with a BS in studio art and
also minored in religion. Guess that about covers it all.
Ok, Mother of a special needs child. My son's name was Michael and he
had Cerebral Palsy. That is a disorder caused by an injury to the brain.
He was hypoxic (meaning a lack of oxygen) at birth. He was born dead,
after they revived him he went to the NICU at Strong Hospital where he
spent the next 100 days. We were told he wouldn't live a week. Or make
it out of the NICU. Or survive his first pneumonia. Well, God is good and
Michael made it nearly 12 years before God called him home. Not bad,
huh?
Well he used a g-tube to eat and take meds, nothing
by mouth. He also had a seizure disorder, 50% get
that and the other 50% don't. He also had a trach.
He got home schooled (they came to him). He was
the sweetest little boy you would ever want to meet.
Don't you just love that face?
Michael loved his "school" work, he was doing a
wonderful job in picking things out and the order they
go in, and was becoming more consistent with
choices. And he absolutely loved music and being read to. He was also
working with switches and had his own laptop to interact with.
He would never ride a bike, or throw a ball, or any of the other things
little boys like to do, but in heaven he is now whole. Psalm138:8 says "The
Lord will perfect that which concerneth me. Thy mercy, O Lord, endureth
forever; forsake not the works of thine own hands." To me that means
Michael will be perfect in heaven. Being a Christian has also helped me to
deal with the stress of being a part of the sandwich generation.
On the subject of caregiver to my parents, well, they are older; my mom
has cerebral palsy (it's not hereditary) and my dad is blind and 85%
deaf. I help them out as much as I can. Dad was a piano tuner and general
"jack of all trades and master of none", now retired. Mom is just that,
our mom. By the way, the we is my brother and I, he is a truck driver.
I guess I take after my dad in the "jack of all trades" department.
Besides being an artist I have also taught myself about computers. I
take them apart and put them back together and they usually work. I
have set up a laptop for my dad with Windows XP and have the narrator
set to come up when the computer boots up. He has a ball with that thing.
I have also been in the military (NAVY), worked with the DPW doing
recycling, worked for 2 car dealerships, one delivering parts and getting
them from the warehouse and the other doing new and used car preps,
painted houses, done all sorts of stuff. Guess you could say I'm "well
rounded".
Well I guess we can add another thing I am doing to relax. With the
encouragement of a very dear friend and brother I started writing
poems. I have journaled on and off for the last 30 yrs. And have tried
different ways of writing and none really worked for me, until now.
Maybe this is the way, at least for now. So I hope you enjoy any future
writing attempts.
mother of a special needs child, wife, caregiver to my parents and an
artist. I graduated from Nazareth College with a BS in studio art and
also minored in religion. Guess that about covers it all.
Ok, Mother of a special needs child. My son's name was Michael and he
had Cerebral Palsy. That is a disorder caused by an injury to the brain.
He was hypoxic (meaning a lack of oxygen) at birth. He was born dead,
after they revived him he went to the NICU at Strong Hospital where he
spent the next 100 days. We were told he wouldn't live a week. Or make
it out of the NICU. Or survive his first pneumonia. Well, God is good and
Michael made it nearly 12 years before God called him home. Not bad,
huh?
Well he used a g-tube to eat and take meds, nothing
by mouth. He also had a seizure disorder, 50% get
that and the other 50% don't. He also had a trach.
He got home schooled (they came to him). He was
the sweetest little boy you would ever want to meet.
Don't you just love that face?
Michael loved his "school" work, he was doing a
wonderful job in picking things out and the order they
go in, and was becoming more consistent with
choices. And he absolutely loved music and being read to. He was also
working with switches and had his own laptop to interact with.
He would never ride a bike, or throw a ball, or any of the other things
little boys like to do, but in heaven he is now whole. Psalm138:8 says "The
Lord will perfect that which concerneth me. Thy mercy, O Lord, endureth
forever; forsake not the works of thine own hands." To me that means
Michael will be perfect in heaven. Being a Christian has also helped me to
deal with the stress of being a part of the sandwich generation.
On the subject of caregiver to my parents, well, they are older; my mom
has cerebral palsy (it's not hereditary) and my dad is blind and 85%
deaf. I help them out as much as I can. Dad was a piano tuner and general
"jack of all trades and master of none", now retired. Mom is just that,
our mom. By the way, the we is my brother and I, he is a truck driver.
I guess I take after my dad in the "jack of all trades" department.
Besides being an artist I have also taught myself about computers. I
take them apart and put them back together and they usually work. I
have set up a laptop for my dad with Windows XP and have the narrator
set to come up when the computer boots up. He has a ball with that thing.
I have also been in the military (NAVY), worked with the DPW doing
recycling, worked for 2 car dealerships, one delivering parts and getting
them from the warehouse and the other doing new and used car preps,
painted houses, done all sorts of stuff. Guess you could say I'm "well
rounded".
Well I guess we can add another thing I am doing to relax. With the
encouragement of a very dear friend and brother I started writing
poems. I have journaled on and off for the last 30 yrs. And have tried
different ways of writing and none really worked for me, until now.
Maybe this is the way, at least for now. So I hope you enjoy any future
writing attempts.
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