Amanda Dickinson

My nephew Eli, my niece Lainey, and Kaden were playing in the living room floor on Saturday. Eli was pretending to be Superman and Kaden was Captain America. They were drawing up an elaborate plan to stop the rain and bring back the sun. Lainey, who had been playing a lion was told she couldn’t take the chalk to draw up the plan on the board because lions couldn’t draw. So she transformed so she could draw. Kaden- “Who are you, Lainey?” Lainey- “I’m a human.” Kaden- “No, but who are you?” We are often the same way. We are human. But we may wear many different hats, capes, or masks. I can pretend to be super mom and that I have everything under control and there are days I do feel that way. I try to be positive and constantly push through while also trying to push Kaleb to work on skill development but at the same time I am human. I have days where it’s not okay. It’s not okay that I don’t know how I’m going to juggle it all, while already worrying about the pros and cons of

The following is the video created from my letter I wrote to myself on the second anniversary of our Diagnosis Day.

People may wonder why I spend so much time talking about DSDN. Especially when I have my own non-profit that operates solely on donors and fundraising. DSDN was in fact a game changer for me. I can still recall my feelings of loneliness and heart ache as I sat in Kaleb's NICU room pumping one day. Out of desperation for a connection to anyone I posted in a NICU Facebook group. I began the post; "Okay, feeling very alone."  Another Rockin' Mom shared about a group she was in. She then got me connected with Jen Jacob and by the end of the day I was a Rockin' mom. I joined the group that would walk this journey with me. A group filled with so many friends who have become like family to me. I look forward to our family reunion (aka Rockin' Mom Retreat) in September.  So yes, I talk a lot about  DSDN so that they continue to be a game changer for new families receiving a diagnosis and as they work to support all of their current Rockin’ families. This is the v

I haven’t written many blog posts in the past year. One, I struggled with finding the time. I know shocker right with two young children, career, and doctorate. The other reason though is I was dealing with an internal battle. I struggled with the line between upbeat and positive posts and how much to share of the harder and tougher posts. Another way to compare it, would be unicorns or also sometimes referred to as unicorn farts. Sure, I’ve shared my fair share of poop stories, after all I am the mother to two boys. But I’m not sure I’ve ever written about farts. However, the unicorn holds a special place in many of my fellow Rockin’ moms. If you want to read of another blog post about the significance of the unicorn click here . The following is my explanation. To explain, right after Kaleb’s diagnosis I would get online and I would find many uplifting and inspirational stories of parents talking about how quickly they came to terms with a Down syndrome diagnosis, how it is the