Hello! I usually linger in the chatroom, but I thought I would descend upon the forums for a change of scenery.
I'm Hannah. I'm a single mom of four beautiful children. We live in the far northeastern corner of Washington state...the place the rest of WA doesn't realize exists (and we like to keep it that way!) Three of my four children are special needs (all of my daughters). My daughter Emma is 13. She is in a wheelchair with what is called "mitochondrial disease". It's a rare, progressive and life-threatening genetic condition effecting all of the muscles in her body. She loves to bake (she can't use any of her limbs, so she reads the directions out-loud to me), paint (she paints by rolling the wheels of her wheelchair through paint put on a large canvas on the floor) and design costumes for her school drama club. My son Max is 12. He is healthy. He loves going on backpacking trips into the wilderness with me, wood burning artwork, playing Minecraft and drawing comics. My daughter Naomi is 8. She was born with a life-threatening condition called gastrioschesis with bowel atresia. Basically, her intestines grew on the outside of her body and she lost two thirds of them when she was born. In total, she has spent about 2.5 years of her life in the hospital with multiple surgeries. She is on IV nutrition at night through a permanent port in her chest to keep her alive, basically. She enjoys soccer, organizing anything she can get her hands on, reading, playing school (she's always the teacher), and building mostly aircraft with Legos. My daughter Abbie is 6. She was born with a heart and lung defect called pulmonary hypertension. Her left lung only works at 50% resulting in blood building up in her heart and causing the chamber walls to thin. She cannot go anywhere above 6,000 feet in elevation or travel by plane or she could go into cardiac arrest. Other than taking medication at night and needing oxygen during illness, you would not be able to tell that her little heart is a ticking time bomb. She loves art of any kind, being a social butterfly, playing dress up with my makeup, and cooking up her own created recipes in the kitchen when mom's not looking. She's my little firecracker. I am blessed to be able to stay at home and be here for my children whenever they are ill because of disability insurance through Washington state. When I'm not being called to the school for a medical emergency I volunteer at our local food bank, work in the church nursery, teach preschool Sunday school, forage for edible wild plants (as a hobby), collect rocks, hike, scout out thrift shops, research Greek history and American gold rush history and go on joy ride adventures down the many logging roads cutting through our mountains. Anyhow, that's an awful lot about my family. I got carried away. LOL! So hello.
P.s. We also have a rat terrier (Frodo Waggins), a fat grey cat (Nuggets), a Senegal parrot (Alfred), an Amazon parrot (Kiwi), a cockatiel (Kisses) and a brown Netherland dwarf rabbit (Cocoa-Butt).
I'm Hannah. I'm a single mom of four beautiful children. We live in the far northeastern corner of Washington state...the place the rest of WA doesn't realize exists (and we like to keep it that way!) Three of my four children are special needs (all of my daughters). My daughter Emma is 13. She is in a wheelchair with what is called "mitochondrial disease". It's a rare, progressive and life-threatening genetic condition effecting all of the muscles in her body. She loves to bake (she can't use any of her limbs, so she reads the directions out-loud to me), paint (she paints by rolling the wheels of her wheelchair through paint put on a large canvas on the floor) and design costumes for her school drama club. My son Max is 12. He is healthy. He loves going on backpacking trips into the wilderness with me, wood burning artwork, playing Minecraft and drawing comics. My daughter Naomi is 8. She was born with a life-threatening condition called gastrioschesis with bowel atresia. Basically, her intestines grew on the outside of her body and she lost two thirds of them when she was born. In total, she has spent about 2.5 years of her life in the hospital with multiple surgeries. She is on IV nutrition at night through a permanent port in her chest to keep her alive, basically. She enjoys soccer, organizing anything she can get her hands on, reading, playing school (she's always the teacher), and building mostly aircraft with Legos. My daughter Abbie is 6. She was born with a heart and lung defect called pulmonary hypertension. Her left lung only works at 50% resulting in blood building up in her heart and causing the chamber walls to thin. She cannot go anywhere above 6,000 feet in elevation or travel by plane or she could go into cardiac arrest. Other than taking medication at night and needing oxygen during illness, you would not be able to tell that her little heart is a ticking time bomb. She loves art of any kind, being a social butterfly, playing dress up with my makeup, and cooking up her own created recipes in the kitchen when mom's not looking. She's my little firecracker. I am blessed to be able to stay at home and be here for my children whenever they are ill because of disability insurance through Washington state. When I'm not being called to the school for a medical emergency I volunteer at our local food bank, work in the church nursery, teach preschool Sunday school, forage for edible wild plants (as a hobby), collect rocks, hike, scout out thrift shops, research Greek history and American gold rush history and go on joy ride adventures down the many logging roads cutting through our mountains. Anyhow, that's an awful lot about my family. I got carried away. LOL! So hello.
P.s. We also have a rat terrier (Frodo Waggins), a fat grey cat (Nuggets), a Senegal parrot (Alfred), an Amazon parrot (Kiwi), a cockatiel (Kisses) and a brown Netherland dwarf rabbit (Cocoa-Butt).