Our family desperately needs help learning to communicate properly with Abby. We want Abby to be able to connect with the world around her and start to express her needs and desires to us. We know our little girl is in there somewhere, but she is trapped in her dark and silent universe. Our big hope for Abby is to find a special intervenor to come work with our family to help unlock her mind and fingers so she can become as independent as possible. She is our sweetheart and her presence in our family is so valuable. Her fighting spirit and strength of character have been such an inspiration to my husband and me. We are looking forward to knowing our child more deeply.


There are many struggles having a child with special needs. We are overwhelmed with just the everyday issues let alone the school issues. We have been having problems with the school, it has been a very emotionally draining year for our family. The deaf-blind factor has always been an issue. It's hard to find individuals that are trained in this area. Trying to coordinate the blind services and the deaf services has been tricky. We feel that Emily is very behind in her learning. We are always looking for help, and are on many waiting lists. We are afraid Emily is falling way behind and we are concerned about what her furure holds. Emily is a very smart girl and we want her to learn to her full potential.


Kodiak was born with CHARGE Syndrome. We are facing so many issus with him. We are trying to break the communication barrier... This morning he woke up at 4:00 a.m. and kept turning on all the lights and waking up the other two kids and my mom and I. This made it hard to get the other two up for school. I have no way of communicating to leave the lights off. He needs to drink more fluids but it is a constant battle that can take up to an hour just to get in 4 oz. Eating is us feeding him. I want to potty train him but don't even know how to begin... I feel so overwhelmed that I just want to go to sleep in the middle of this stress. I feel so exhausted all the time. I do have a lot of hope.


"Trying to communicate with a child who is either deaf or blind is one thing, but both is very difficult. In her classroom, she does have a vision specialist that comes in a few hours a month to observe Tori and offer suggestions, but I feel that having a trained intervenor is the only way. To me, having a well trained intervenor is as necessary as her needing her wheelchair to get around most of the day. The school district wouldn't deprive her of her wheelchair when she needs it, so why should they prevent her with a link between her and her environment? But they do."