“Independent Alexandru”: Childhood Weaknesses In my last post I talked about Alexandru’s childhood strengths. (Blog Post # 48: Raising Alexandru, Part 4 ). But as you might expect, there were also weaknesses. I was always trying to figure out ways to help him balance the two, using his strengths to develop his weak areas. ForContinue reading “Blog Post # 49: Raising Alexandru, Part 5”
Category Archives: Raising Our Special Needs Son
Blog Post # 48: Raising Alexandru, Part 4
“Independent Alexandru”: Childhood Strengths Our goal has always been to help Alexandru be as independent as possible. Despite his multiple challenges, as a child, he showed many behaviors that showed promise of acting independently. For example, it seemed he had no trouble communicating basic needs non-verbally when he was sufficiently motivated, as in the followingContinue reading “Blog Post # 48: Raising Alexandru, Part 4”
Blog Post # 46: Raising Alexandru, Part 2
In Blog Post # 44: Raising Alexandru, Part 1, I related several of our adventures while raising Alexandru, starting with bringing him home from the orphanage. During that time we were constantly learning more about him, including a diagnosis of Autism and ADD and the challenges and behaviors that often accompany those parts of hisContinue reading “Blog Post # 46: Raising Alexandru, Part 2”
Blog Post # 29: Scammed — The Rest of the Story
Learning the hard way to recognize a scammer This is the rest of the story (I posted the beginning on May 15, 2020, Blog Post #3 – Is It Ever Okay To Be Scammed?) of how our adult, special-needs, vulnerable son got scammed. From January to August of 2020, our son was sending a scammerContinue reading “Blog Post # 29: Scammed — The Rest of the Story”
Blog Post # 24: Still in Romania: Museums, Metallurgy and Dracula’s Umbrellas
Still in Romania, Part 1/2 Once I had taken our son out of the orphanage, we still couldn’t go home. We had to wait a couple of weeks for the last things to be done, like getting him a passport and getting some final paperwork through the system. So during those two weeks we livedContinue reading “Blog Post # 24: Still in Romania: Museums, Metallurgy and Dracula’s Umbrellas”
Blog Post # 23: Our Family Is Complete!
Waiting for Mom and Dad, Part 2 In Part 1, Blog Post # 22: An Orphanage Story, we left Alexandru, waiting and watching for his own parents to come get him. When he was 2 and 1/2 years old, suddenly potential parents started visiting him! They were very nice, and he always hoped they wouldContinue reading “Blog Post # 23: Our Family Is Complete!”
Blog Post # 22: An Orphanage Story
Waiting for Mom and Dad, Part 1 Here is the beginning of how we completed our family! In a small Romanian village, on an auspicious day in the middle of January, 1993, a child was conceived. (Amazingly enough, at that same time, in Tallahassee, Florida I fell in love with sign language. (Blog PostContinue reading “Blog Post # 22: An Orphanage Story”
Blog Post # 20: Our Son, The Clown
Family Stories This is about our youngest son, who was six years old when this story takes place. Our son happens to be Deaf. He also happens to hate cigarette smoke. He and I had just finished doing our grocery shopping at the Food Lion. We started to walk to our car. Then I noticed,Continue reading “Blog Post # 20: Our Son, The Clown”
Blog Post # 17: Icy Nebraska and Wild Rides
Narrow Escape In the winter of 2004 my sister Deb, my then 10 year old son Alexandru, Alexandru’s Lego Space Shuttle, Mom’s cat Felix, and I were driving to Utah in a 20 foot U-Haul. The cab seemed very small as we were crammed in shoulder to shoulder. We had left Orlando with my Mom’sContinue reading “Blog Post # 17: Icy Nebraska and Wild Rides”
Blog Post # 11: Sending My Child To School Naked
Challenges with our special needs deaf son Here is the story of how one day I sent our son to preschool naked. When our special needs son was young it was very hard to get him to do certain things. My overall goal was to get him to cooperate with daily activities. He wasContinue reading “Blog Post # 11: Sending My Child To School Naked”
My Life, by DAG 