“A Joyful Journey”

Supporting my disabled son as a single mom has been challenging, but a joyful journey.

I believe in miracles and his birth was just that, at 32 weeks gestation. I learned early on after my son’s diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder, that I needed to equip myself and learn how to navigate the social service system, to be able to provide the necessary resources my son was going to be in need of.
Accessing resources is difficult for any parent.

Listening to my son’s wants and recognizing his needs became my priority.

I personally felt if I worked for the agencies that provided the services for the disabled, I would then be able to educate myself about those services that I needed to access, and in return I could find a way to educate other mom’s.

In 2000, I became a State of Florida contracted provider to assist the disabled population. God was now giving me that small beam of hope to work with, and from that moment I knew I was on the right path to help other mom’s.

The book my son and I have written is just that, full of resources. It will give families hope. “Amazing Grace, Amazing Gifts” is a story about our journey and the resources we were able to access and use along the way. I have also shared these resources with other mom’s and will continue to find a way to fulfill this passion that I have of giving hope to others. The resources that are mentioned in our book are nation wide, in some cases, but may be under a different name where others reside.

At the age of 10 my son wrote in my journal, “Mom keep writing my story”. I did just that, in more than 20 journals. Now his most recent request is that we reach out to everyone on his favorite list of celebrities and send them a copy of our book. Done. There is nothing to hard for God.

Now let me help you, by sharing those resources and assisting you with navigating a social service system that is difficult, but not impossible.

— Terri