"There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One is roots; the other, wings." - Hodding Carter
"It's not so much an empty nester thing, it's more a little-crushed-body-lying-on-the-sidewalk-below-the-nest kind of thing." - Eva, mother of Rick.
People with disabilities, their friends and and family members share many fears and dreams. They want to have roots, they want to have stable loving homes, and take off from those homes to college, jobs, homes and families of their own.
Welcome to the Family Life & Disability workshop, where we will try to help you find the information and the resources you need to fly as high as your gifts will take you, and prevent that feeling of being crushed on the sidewalk under the nest. If you are a person with a disability, or a relative, you will find topics here that relate to your own life.
At right is the view off the deck at our corporate office. We are an Indian-owned company, with headquarters on the Spirit Lake Nation in central North Dakota, so we do emphasize the issues and challenges more common on reservations, including access to information.
However, most of what we discuss - children with behavior problems, the fears as your adolescent wants to be less protected and more independent - are experiences and concerns of every family, urban or rural, Indian or not.
Unless your child with a disability is an infant, you have already found out that adjustment to a disability is not a one time thing. It happens over and over. Entering school, making friends, dating, drinking, getting a job, moving out on your own - all are going to present new challenges. Adjustments happen in adulthood and old age, as family members lose abilities they once had, causing its own new set of emotional and practical difficulties.
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Click on this link to start your journey toward those challenges, along with other American Indians with disabilities and their families who have been down this road before. |