October is Augmentative Alternative (AAC) Awareness month. It is also the month annually that I have to resubscribe to the website building program I use to write and host this blog. The overlap strikes me as appropriate. My blog has slowly migrated into a site that focuses on Nathaniel and his need for communication; it is meaningful that I yearly recommit to sharing that journey during AAC awareness month.

We have benefited a lot from other parents’ blogs for decades. In recent years, blogs about parenting children with medically complex diagnoses and complex communication needs has offered us hope, ideas, and camaraderie. We are committed to adding our voice to that collective. From the emails and Facebook comments and messages we receive, we know there is a need for the parent perspective in sharing what day to day life looks like for kids like Nathaniel. There is a need for honesty in the challenges facing families who adopt in general and specifically who adopt children with special needs. There is a need for real stories in what it looks like to obediently follow Jesus into hard things and participating in a child’s suffering. But reality is that maintaining this blog costs our family money. In addition to the web fees, this year Rich and I have hired teen helpers to play with Nathaniel to give me time to write.

I am firm about keeping my blog free of advertisements. There is nothing that discourages me from visiting someone’s web page more than having to click out of multiple ads to see the content I need. I don’t want you to have to muddle through that either. Some family blogs venture into selling products for funding. Simply put, nobody here got time for that.

So I’m going to be straightforward and blunt. Would you make a donation to keep this blog alive?

Perhaps think of it like this - if I had put all the information you can find on this site in book - would you buy it? Please consider donating an equivalent amount towards preserving open access to the information found here.

Donations can be made by clicking the button below and using the secure collection of Stripe. I will not have access to your credit card information. Funds will be used first for web maintenance fees and secondly towards fostering my time to write.

Thank you