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.

Mich (4)

 AZ: Thank you Meredith  For the  interview. this  is the first interview on    my blog.

Meredith:  you're very welcome Thanks for choosing me, I'm honored!

 To  read more  about  Meredith  and her  family    visit her  blog    

Happy Birthday Laid Back Althlete a new nick name

 My Big  Bro  

             Today is my brother's  birthday.      I  will take the time to give you guys an  update  on what he  is doing.  

  After  many  years   of  playing baseball   Laid Back  Athlete now  has a new  job   at  a Enterprise in a big  city.  He lives in  said city now  with  a  roommate.   Since  he  no longer  is playing baseball  it is   time  once again  to  change his  Name on the  blog      Laid Back Athlete  will no  be known  as  My Big Brother   I  hope he like it  happy b day   to my big bro

What I hope to be doing in four years (A post inspired by the Women's World Cup

                   For the  past two Sundays  my family has  spent   the   early afternoon in front of the  TV  watching the Us women soccer team    in t he women  world  cup.  It has  been  great. Soccer has  been a part of  my life  since  I was  5.  i started so young  because  of  my father.  he  played on the Notre Dame soccer team his  freshman year in collage.  From the tender age of  five  I  was  in AYSO on the  inclusive soccer teams.  I that was a great childhood thing  I  partook  in,

    The next  woman  World cup will be  in Canada  in 2015.  I will be  23 years  old.  So hear are  some things  i hope to be doing then

Finish Collage

 Write  a book/ film  a documentary

Be done with   OCD (this will be done  soon)

 Do  more advocacy work

 Have at least one  CP  Awareness  walk in March

  What   are  your goals  for the next four  years?  For  your kids?

 My first ever soccer team  pic

In America ?

  Pledge  of   Allegiance

 I  pledge  allegiance to the flag  of  the  United  States  of  America
   And to  the republic   for which it stands
 One Nation under God
 With  Liberty  and  Justice   for ALL

    All  means   everyone     even those  with disabilities.   What  happens when people forget 


                 Let me tell you a story.   Lets say  that you are  13 years  old  but instead of hanging  out  at the mall and    middle school  drama   you spend  your days  in a facility  because  you are hard to handle.     One  day on a field   trip  someone  with authority sits on you until you die.      You are in a van  but the driver  does not  get medical care  for  you.

 Seems  like   the victim  was kidnapped   right

   wait   you are in a care facially    why



As a person with behavior  issues  and  disabilities  my heart   really breaks  for this little  boy.    I  hope  there  are   not other  people  in   America  like John  but  the  sad  fact  is that there are most likely others.    I love    being  a American    there are lots of  benefits   from living here  but   I am not happy  with  the story.    Does  anyone have  any  ideas  how we  can  fix the problem?

   For  more info on  John  Carey  click  here 

 and    here is something   that  Tim Shiver    wrote in  regards to   John


 got  image  from http://dclips.fundraw.com/400dir/excl_ed_comoglio_marbatch_Image-5.gif

Happy Fathers day

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

  Something I like about my dad is that he   seems to know everything  He is  soo smart and  cool    My dad loves  sailboats  and  baseball  Sorry  he is    taken   Happy  Fathers day Dad

Just want to have fun

           this post is  a vent u  have been  warned

  Even  though  I am 19 years old   and the eldest  sister. I feel  like  I am  nine and have two older sisters. The worst  part is that   I am done with high school  but never went to a house party   or a school dance.

   Things are different  for  my two  sisters.  Book gal and   Princess  are   known to be out of the house a lot. They have lots of friends that they hang out with   and  I am stuck at home.  I am  soo bored  and the Wii  and internet  only helps  to a extent.  I am soo lonely .   I do not know why this should bother me  because  I have  been  lonely for a while  now  however it does.

 me at a friends  house making cookie December 2010

 What can  parents of  typical  teenagers   do  to help  people like me out  is  to encourage  that   they  call up    others with disabilities  there same  age to hang out with.   I know  i am  difficult to hang out with but  if  I  lack  practice  of being around  peers  I  will never  learn.     Just because I am disabled  does not mean that I  do not have the same diseres   as other teenagers  do. i want to go out of the house without  my parents and have a  good  time.  I want  to have a  fun summer  getaway.  I want something to do.  Will all the  things  typical  teenagers  do  be  right for me   no  but allot of them will.   For example  I  can not  go to   to a 18 and under  club  but  I   would  like to go bowling   or  go to the theaters  to see    Harry Potter at midnight.  I  may not   want to go  to a horror   film   but  i  would  enjoy horseback  riding  or     a amusement park.      What  I would love    is  if  someone  invited  me to do something  and  even  if  it was not  something  I wanted to do     It would  be a step in the right  direction.      People  with disabilities   just want to have fun

Happenings at home

 hay  guys  so   I  have not been   blogging  for a while so here is whats up 

1  My   sister ,  book gal,   is  graduating from high school and will be moving to Boston.  The  ceremony is  tomorrow  and    we have a house party    on Saturday.

 2 Princess is a senior .  She   took the SAT's  on Saturday.  I  felt kinda bad for her because her  first week of summer break  was spent  taking a  SAT prep course.  The same one  I  took    but never  used   i   now  to go  CC  sigh 

3 I  got a job at  a basketball camp.  Note   it is  not a special needs  basketball  camp,  A  regular basketball  camp.  My mom  tried  to  get me connected to a job coach for adults with disabilities  but  I  wanted  to  get the job on my terms. I  was a camper  at this camp  in middle school and loved it.  Their philosophy is  to teach  campers  how to be  better  people  using sport as a vehicle. ( sounds  familiar   right think Special Olympics ) One of my memories of camp is   having  to  ask to go to snack  using magic words  and lots of high fives ( again special Olympics)     I am supper excited.  I will be blogging about it as   I  get more info on it ,

4 My mom  had a birthday yesterday  Happy b day mom

5 My dad's mom is here for the  graduation  tomorrow  this  is really cool as she is in Texas and we do not see her that often.   Yesterday  My parents grandma and I went to see X Men  great movie  more info about that soon