It's Simple. Be Kind

Hello All! Blog Update: Thank you so much for following along with our journey! As of this week, I am so excited to be using a brand new site to host my blog! I will no longer be actively posting on this site. BUT there is still so much to talk about!! Please continue to follow along at:  www.ItsSimpleBeKind.com Also!! Please feel free to re-subscribe! I wont be able to transfer your email address over unfortunately. I can absolutely assure you, your emails are only being used to keep you up to date with my blog entries! I can't wait for you to see the new site!! Please feel free to comment, like and share! (all new features) See you over there! xo Nicole Zwiercan

It’s ok. I know the news can be shocking.  I know you might not know what to say.  I know what you must be thinking… only because we thought it too.  What started out as a letter telling you what NOT to say, turned into a letter about why it’s ok to say exactly how you feel.  *** I know there are many parents that get offended when you say “I am sorry” for their child’s diagnosis. Me, sometimes, being one of them. Depending on my mood, and if my toddler is cooperating that day. For the most part, I really don’t mind because I can understand where you are coming from. I have seen post after post with directions on things to say to parents of special-needs kids. Posts on things not to say. When to say them. Who to say them to. What color to wear when you talk to them… ok so I haven’t seen that one, but you get the idea.  If I’m going to be  completely  honest here, I was sorry at first too. I was sorry to hear the news from the doctors.  I was sorry that our little girl spent

After receiving the results of Ashlynn’s head ultrasound at 2 weeks old, Chris and I knew there was a possibility of a Cerebral Palsy diagnosis.   Of course we did what any parent does when we want more info… headed straight to Google to research PVL. It was only a matter of minutes before we picked up on the statistically significant correlation between the two. Ashlynn never looked or moved differently to our untrained eyes in the beginning. She moved both of her arms and both of her legs… a lot. She followed our faces when we spoke to her. She even started babbling and cooing much earlier than our first. If it wasn’t for the fact that we saw her MRI results with our own eyes, we might have never suspected anything was wrong! We would come to understand it wasn’t so much that she wasn’t moving her arms and legs- but rather, how she was moving them. **** The day was finally upon us. The “wait-and- see” day.   Ashlynn’s 6-months follow-up.   I remember in the months