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!

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Songwriters/Singers to Check Out for Peace, Comfort

I have very particular taste in music. I like two genres of music the best: totally fun and non-sensical, great-to-workout-to music (B52s, REM, Black Eyes Peas, etc) or really poignant, deep songs that speak volumes to my heart. The latter I have found mostly through Sara Groves, a little known Christian artist who is amazingly gifted in both songwriting and composing, kind of folksy, never minces words. The other is a band called Indelible Grace, which is committed to bringing back old hymns into our worship, often redone to fresh music. The old hymn writers are under-appreciated, and often the traditional accompanying melodies don't allow one to really digest the beauty of their poetry. To hear them redone with new melodies helps me to grasp the depth of their language. If you are interested in hearing either Indelible Grace or Sara Grove's songs, just go to Itunes and look them up. Sara Groves hits the nail on the head for me in her take on life on so many levels. I consider her to be a friend on the journey, cheering me on, reminding me of the beauty in the struggle.
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1 comment:

Andrea said...

i love so many of sara's songs too: "rewrite this tragedy," you are the sun, conversations, all of them really! do you listen to Ginny Owens?

March 23, 2010 at 12:04 PM

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