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We’ve just returned home from Pop Warner Cheer Nationals, no trophy in hand, but an experience of a lifetime for the 18 girls and their families. This is only the second trip we’ve taken via air travel, as I was a nervous wreck, and keto consumed our lives for the better part of four years.…
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For the past several years, I have coached youth recreational cheerleading. What started as a way to ensure my child with epilepsy (and cerebral palsy) could participate has morphed into my renewed love for cheerleading and sharing it with my daughter, who I feared would never be able to dance or cheer. Cheerleading is hard…
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“At this point, we are worried about disordered eating in the future.” The words reverberated through my mind as tears welled in my eyes and my stomach sank. “It’s time to stop the ketogenic diet; she likely got what she needed from it in the first two years.“ Almost four solid years, three of which…
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Songs, smells, and foods take us back to particular days and times. It’s Unforgettable (Nat King Cole) or almost every song on the ’90s on 9 channel, ocean air, and black licorice for me. They invoke nostalgia, bringing a warm and fuzzy feeling, almost as if you are being embraced by a memory. Yet, in…
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Grief, we typically equate it to the loss of a person. Grief that is the loss of what was or should be is like a wave you see coming but can’t avoid. It knocks you down with one fell swoop, dragging you out to sea, you are left fighting your way back to shore, yet…
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Seasons change. Every four months we anticipate the renewal of spring, the warmth of summer, the crispness of fall and the cold, cozy days of winter. The shifts come and we embrace them. Yet, do we embrace the seasons of our life changing?
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I recently went down a rabbit hole of looking through old photos for a project I’m working on. Pictures from my childhood, awkward teenage years and early twenties unearthed from dusty boxes. I was reminded of the person I was before. Before marriage, before parenthood, before epilepsy. There was the girl who fought through an…
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ago as the 10 Lessons I’ve learned in 10 years of parenting a child with disabilities, but I kept getting stumped or going off on a tangent. Parenting looks nothing like I had envisioned it, instead of ballet recitals, soccer practice and sleepovers it’s therapy appointments, bloodwork and way too many seizures. But it’s taught…
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I want carefree normalcy, yet Epilepsy just will not allow it. I want a vacation from Epilepsy…and it wouldn’t hurt if it was on a tropical island Pina Colada in my hand, Reagan running free through the waves not a care in the world.
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I remember the day so vividly, not the date or the year, just the day. I hadn’t been practicing yoga that long and wasn’t really into all the quotes and mediation stuff, I was simply trying to take back a bit of myself after the first few years of motherhood. The teacher started the class…
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I recently shared a clip for a documentary, called UNseen. And let me tell you I’ve never felt so seen in my life (as a parent). Before I had Reagan, a friend gave me every labor scenario, I felt prepared. Until I wasn’t. I imagined a life filled with dance class, soccer practice, cute little…
Rea of Hope 