AZ is Amazing: The Cornish Family: My first interview

The Cornish Family

I am very happy to have Meredith Cornish who blogs at Cornish Adoption Journey to share a l little about her family.

AZ : How old are your kids? What are there disabilities? and how did they join your family?

Aleksa (8)

Meredith: Our oldest two are both 8 right now. Aleksa was adopted 6 months ago from Ukraine and will be 9 in October. Emma was adopted at 5, also from Ukraine, and will be 9 in February.Both the oldest girls have Down syndrome.Emma also has Autism and Cerebral Palsy. Next is Kristopher, our biological 7 year old. He's "typical" and we call him our "biggest" even tho he's no longer our oldest.Wesley is 6 and has spastic quadriplegic CP. He was adopted 6 months ago. Wesley is also visually impaired and is considered legally blind.Brianna is 5, our biological daughter with Down syndrome.James will be 5 in August and was adopted from foster care. He joined our home in May 2010, a year ago, but his adoption wasn't finalized until September 2010.

James (4)

Micah will be 5 in September and was also adopted from Ukraine 3 years ago at 18 months old. He has Down syndrome too.

Lynae(22 months)

And last is Lynae, our typical biological daughter that will be 2 in September, her birthday is 09.09.09.

AZ:Wow that is cool because I turn 20 September 6th.

Meredith:Oh fun

AZ: Why did you want to adopt?


Briana (5).

Meredith: I have two siblings that my parents adopted from foster care when I was a teen and the second when I was off and married, but adoption has always been a part of my life. Both of my grandmothers spent time in children's homes as well, which is what prompted my parents' decision to adopt.My husband and I were married when my parents adopted the second time, and we've always discussed adoption, so it was a natural course of action for us both the first time, and very much "God prompted" the second two times.When we had Brianna, we got God's "yes" that we could "handle" special needs... since we weren't really sure that we would be able to do it until then.

Wesley (6)

AZ:Cool. What resources have you found most useful to helping you learn about Cerebral Palsy.?

Meredith:I used to babysit for a family whose 2 yr old had CP. She is now 12, and we have continued to be friends (her parents and I). We also find Yahoo groups to be VERY useful, and parents have been the best source of information I've found. The second source would be our blog, when we are able to post our specific issues and find out pretty quick answers, which is priceless

AZ: Are there any support groups are things similar to the Buddy walk in your area for kids with CP

Emma (8)

Meredith:No support groups that I know of, but I have met another mom of a 12 yr old w/ CP as well that's local and we'e gotten together once now.

Kristopher (7)

AZ: How aware is Kristaphor about his siblings special needs?

Meredith:Kristopher knows that the kids have disabilities (except Lynae). To him, it's no big deal. Brianna was born when he was not quite 2 years old, and she's his "always"

Though the other kids are "more disabled" than Brianna, it isn't a big deal around here

AZ:I am a big advocate for inculsion I am on I am norm that fosters inculsion so my next question is what does inculsion look like for each one of your kids.

Meredith: Let's start with the oldest.. Aleksa is only attending school 2-3 days /week this first semester of school, so we have not pushed for inclusion hours for her. Not yet anyway. I'm hoping to add in several morning hours of inclusion for Aleksa nxt semester.Emma is not in any inclusion classes. She doesn't care about other kids, and she is at a very basic learning part now, so she's in a self contained classroom full time.Wesley same as Aleksa. Both of them don't understand much English yet, so the contained classroom isn't bad. The three of them will all be in the same class.Brianna is next, and she is very social and close to grade-level. We really pushed for full inclusion for her, but we weren't able to have the school agree that it would be appropriate. They felt that she was small, shy, and would be run over in a regular classroom. At the end of a 4 1/2 hour IEP, we eventually agreed to have her in the regular kindergarten class for most of the day, with pull out to the class my older kids are in for Math and Reading time each day. James and Micah are both in PreK still. They are in an 90/10 Prek class, which has about 10 kids in it with 1 or 2 "typical" kids along with the rest that have IEPs.Both of them are "aimed for" the self contained classroom because of their behaviors (which really is what keeps Aleksa there as well), but we'll see how this year goes. Micah is really making gains in the behavior area, so we'll see.