Caregiver Depression – Real, Raw, and “Normal”

Caregiver Depression – Real, Raw, and “Normal”

Depression is frequently a topic we tip-toe around, especially as caregivers. With all the issues we deal with on a daily basis, our problems are insignificant, right? WRONG! Parent and special needs advocate Maria Pepperworth speaks openly about depression as a caregiver today. Life as a special-needs parent can be exhausting and lonely.  Special-needs parents have…

We are an autism family…

By Maria Pepperworth – Alaskan parent, advocate, rocker! Whenever people ask me about autism I like to use the word experience. My kids “experience” autism. In reality,  our whole family “experiences” autism. It impacts the whole family. Autism is different in every person. It’s unpredictable, it’s difficult, it’s amazing, it’s a puzzle. If you would’ve…

Brittney’s Story Continued…

The money:   There are many factors that make living in Barrow with special needs unlike anywhere else. Basically, living here and having to seek medical professional help = EXPENSIVE and very nerve racking. We have been very lucky with my sister and her getting the medical help she’s needed. But we have also been…

Brittney’s Story: Part 1

Brittney’s Story: Part 1

Brittney Toalston is sharing her family’s story with us about what it is like to have a family member with special needs in rural Alaska. This story will be delivered in four parts. My family has lived in Barrow, 320 miles north of the Arctic Circle, for the last 29 years. My sister who is…

Barbe’s Story – Part I

So here I am pretending I know what I’m doing in writing a “blog”, and to be completely honest, I have no idea what I’m suppose to say. Nor have I ever written “outside-the-box” (well, there was a couple poems for the magazine “Seventeen” many moons ago). People often ask me, how I got in…

Today we celebrate!

Not so long ago, just a few short years , on the first day of school, I sat in the parking lot of my son’s school sobbing my heart out as he started school. He experiences autism, and needs a very high level of support.