I'm Perfect...I'm a Failure

By Julie Beem

LuLu and I build gingerbread houses.  We build them for the annual competition at her virtual school.  She’s a serious competitor.  Prior to the houses we built for the last competitions, I had absolutely no gingerbread house experience.  It has been a trial by fire – and a lot of work!  But the interesting thing is that it’s been a fruitful adventure and one that showcases some of her talents.

Never Let Them See You Sweat

By Julie Beem

Every Monday my daughter (let’s call her LuLu) goes to a social skills class.  Most of the children are on the autism spectrum and that seems to work fine for her, even though I truly believe her developmental issues are trauma-related and not true autism (or at least not entirely autism-related).  It’s a nice bit of downtime for me, given that she’s in virtual school and I’m her daily learning coach.  Chatting with the other mothers is my own social break.  One of the mothers recently revealed that her daughter was also adopted and did it in the context of exploring why she acted the way she did.  We’ve since discussed ways that her daughter’s autism diagnosis doesn’t quite “fit” some behaviors and maybe there was something more there.  (Yes, I believe there is – early childhood trauma.)