About our Daughter

I am mother to four wonderful daughters, ages 17, 19, 21, and 23, and wife to the greatest husband on earth. God has given us a special child to raise one who was diagnosed with early-onset bipolar disorder at the age of seven, though she showed signs of it from the age of fifteen months. She also has ADHD, Sensory Integration Disorder (sensory seeking), Dyslexia, and Non-Verbal Learning Disorder-NOS, all typical comorbidities for a bipolar child. In spite of the trials, she enjoys lacrosse, running (finished her first marathon in October of 2014!), and reading and writing her own books. I will share with you the many joys and sorrows we have faced and will face in the future with the hope that you may find better understanding about this mental illness caused by both chemical and structural abnormalities in the brain. I desire that you will be encouraged by this blog if you are also dealing with a bipolar child. Thank you for reading and sharing in our journey.

How Did You Know She Was Bipolar So Young?

I wrote a long explanation of how we came to this bipolar diagnosis in a child so young under my post of March 19th of 2009. If your child or a child you know bears similarities, please seek out a good psychiatrist and don't wait for "things to get better." Often they will simply get worse, and the longer a child is unmedicated, the more damage their brain can accrue. Early diagnoses and treatment are key to providing these children with a chance at a successful life later as a teen and an adult.
Never change, start or stop a medication without the approval of your child's physician!

Thursday, April 19, 2012

The Home Stretch

Oh, this child is so easily distracted!  We have only another six weeks before the end of school and I am really having trouble keeping her on task with homeschooling.  Her head appears to be in the clouds.  With spring break and my mom visiting from CA, we are already behind.  And now I have to go out of town to help our college student pack up her dorm room.  Then we will have one more in the mix!  It is amazing how much less crazy our house is with one gone, even though it still seems pretty crazy.  With four home, everything is just multiplied:  the laundry, the dishes, the mess, the appointments, and so on.  And we are supposed to be showing our house soo.  Yikes!

I guess what I am very grateful for right now is the fact that Caroline is stable.  If she weren't, this would be impossible.
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