Sarah Rise Weekly Updates

Sarah and Carl had a wonderful time on the rest of their Disney Cruise. They spent a relaxed time by the pool while Disney movies played on a big screen on the deck, and the next day had plenty of time after disembarking to go to the Museum of Science and Discovery to see turtles,… Read more »

I was recently asked what autism awareness meant in my household. I said it meant listening to “Love Shack” any time we drive anywhere, usually multiple times. Of course it is more than that, but I also feel like that is a true encapsulating nutshell of the family flexibly supporting Sarah’s love for the song,… Read more »

If you know Sarah well then you know that the most important thing when arriving at a concert venue or gift shop of any sort is to buy a t-shirt and find a place to change into said t-shirt. Last Sunday we donned the personalized Peppa shirts I got us at Christmas and went downtown… Read more »

Just after I wrote my update a week ago, our power came back on! It is always interesting how quickly I go back to taking anything for granted when it works the way it should. Friday night I mysteriously tweaked my knee as I rolled into bed. I couldn’t straighten it or put weight on… Read more »

As of last weekend, Sarah has been sleeping on a mattress on the floor of the bedroom I share with Carl. This is a change from her sleeping next to me and Carl being away or sleeping in Sarah’s bed. When she was next to me, and I adjusted my routines to go to bed… Read more »

Amy and I were hopeful, nervous, excited, and bearly containing ourselves as we went to her appointment with the orthopedic doctor on Thursday afternoon. We were carrying a box full of 50 braced bears in bags with information about Higgy Bears and notes of encouragement from kids to kids and parents to parents. We had… Read more »

Probably due to grief and the upheaval of normal family life around Christmas and early January, Sarah has been having difficulty getting through a school week without a handful of behaviors that usually result in a call home and early pick-up. When this started becoming daily rather than weekly, all of us who support her… Read more »

We do in fact have squirrels in our attic. The soffit was old and damaged, thus providing a perfect entry for squirrels to find some nice shelter. When I called a wildlife removal company, they said to send them my information and they would get back to me because at that moment they were heading… Read more »

If you know Amy, you know she has wonderful facial expressions. There is a picture of her as a baby, held against me in a sling, when she looks extremely opinionated. Little did we know how much her full self was shining through at that moment. When she got home from school on Friday I… Read more »

We caught the red-eye drive Thursday evening…Normally people refer to red-eye flights, but I had never heard of a red-eye drive until Sarah coined the phrase as we drove in the dark to Delaware on Thursday. We arrived at 10pm, so not quite the classic red-eye but certainly past Sarah’s normal tuck-in time. The late… Read more »