Contemplating a Move Upstairs

By Sandy on September 22, 2024

We are thinking about moving Josiah from his current room on the main floor of our home to a bedroom upstairs on the second floor. The space he is in now is meant to be an office. It has French glass doors, no closet and is rather small. It’s also very close to the front door. We have to be vigilant to keep Josiah in and the front door locked.

When all 5 kids were still home, they occupied the upstairs bedrooms. We kept Josiah downstairs, to keep a close eye on him. He was not a good sleeper (still a work in progress) and at times wandered the house in the wee hours of the morning.

Now that he’s 22 and outgrowing his current space, it feels like the right time to make a move. Plus our home sustained extensive water damage last month with walls, a ceiling and flooring needing to be replaced. Once we get it repaired, I think a move upstairs just makes sense.

I’m not sure how Josiah feels about it though. Read more…

ETB 50: Embracing the Struggles and Triumphs of Caring for Special Children: The Toenail Odyssey

By Sandy on August 10, 2023

ETB 50: Ever tried to trim a child’s toenails? Now imagine that child has sensory issues that make the task as perilous and nerve-wracking as a high-wire act. Join me, Sandy Deppisch in this candid discussion on Embrace the Blessing podcast, where we navigate the choppy waters of personal grooming for children with disabilities, specifically, trimming toenails. We share my personal struggle with my son Josiah’s toenail trimming, a task that ended with exhaustion and frustration, yet also highlighted the resilience and strength of such special children.

In this heartfelt narrative, we unravel the remarkable spirit of children like Josiah who, despite their daily challenges, possess an amazing capacity for joy and happiness. This episode is also a sincere appeal to listeners who might have figured out the remedy for this seemingly mundane but complex task. It’s a peek into a day in the life of a parent of a child with disabilities, an opportunity to glean insights on handling similar challenges, and an invitation to marvel at and draw inspiration from the strength and resilience of these special children. Join us as we traverse the joys, the struggles, the victories, and the constant quest for solutions on this extraordinary path less traveled.

Connect with Sandy:
IG: https://www.instagram.com/sandydeppisch
Embrace the Blessing Facebook Group: http://bit.ly/ETB4ME
Website: http://www.embracetheblessing.com/

Liquid Gold

By Sandy on February 6, 2021

Josiah has dealt with GI issues for far too many years. It’s been an ongoing source of discomfort for him and frustration for us. It’s extremely difficult to watch someone you love suffer while helpless to provide relief. That’s how it’s been for longer than I can remember.

Initially we weren’t sure what was causing such pain and aggression. Since Josiah is unable to tell us how he’s feeling, we’ve been left to try to figure it out by keeping careful data, looking for clues, ruling out possibilities, eliminating certain foods, adding in other foods, introducing new medicines, tweaking medicine doses, adding supplements, removing supplements, increasing liquids, increasing exercise and most definitely increasing prayer!

We’ve visited doctors and specialists. We added protective clothing to keep Josiah safe from himself. I’ll probably mention this many more times over the course of this blog but Josiah LIVED in a padded softball helmet with a full face shield for 3 years!! All to keep him safe during extreme bouts of pain which caused severe aggression. Read more…

Helmets Galore!

By Sandy on January 7, 2018

Josiah was discharged from the hospital today. He was frantic and in apparent agony as we raced him to the ER in the wee hours of the morning Friday. Tuesday he began struggling with incontinence (unusual for him), increased thirst, heightened aggression and self injurious behaviors, incessant screaming to the point of making himself hoarse and a bloody left ear from too many punches.

Earlier in the week as things began spiraling downward, I quickly ordered 2 different helmets for him from Amazon. One is a skaters helmet, heavy and cumbersome, completely padded inside with great ear protection, clearly not meant for the purpose for which I purchased it.

Sleep, Glorious Sleep

By Sandy on April 19, 2017

Sleep, or the lack there-of has been a recurring theme over the years. Josiah has notoriously thrived on minimal amounts of sleep for as long as I can remember. Even when we were able to grab some rest after he nodded off at night, it was always more of a nap than a full night of slumber for any of us. Josiah would wake after 3-4 hours, ready to start his happy day, full of energy…very LOUD energy.

Rick and I took turns staying up with the boy. Sometimes it included late night drives to help calm him. Other times it involved doing our best to keep him as quiet as possible while letting him jump, jump, jump on his trampoline. We tried whatever we could think of to lull him back to sleep, rarely with success.

As Josiah’s insomnia raged on, we attempted several sleep solutions.