Support Group Feels

Tonight I went out of my comfort zone (both socially and temperature wise....BURRR) and went to a support group for parents of children with special needs put on by one of Little Bug's private therapy clinics.  I didn't particularly want to go because it seemed like a real downer of an evening to sit in a circle while everyone cried about how hard it is to have a special needs child.  I'd rather just have a pity party on my couch with a glass of wine and reruns of Once Upon a Time while willing time to stop until morning.

But my resolution word for the year is "move" and one of my biggest goals is to make friends with people in my immediate area who understand what it is like to wade through IEPs and schedule life around therapies and how awesome the little victories can be.  I've been realizing that while I can do this whole special needs mama gig on my own island, I don't NEED to.  I can find and build a support system.  But it won't come to me.  I will have to build it myself.

So I put on my favorite warm boots and off I went to to what I thought was a glorified special needs parenting speed dating session.

Turns out, it was just too cold for people to get off their bums, and me and one other mom ended up outnumbered by therapists and counselors and cookies.

But that hour long session went almost 2 hours as the five of us had a refreshing disucssion about the challenges of raising a child with special needs, the blessings that come with raising a child with special needs, and how we could take this "support group" and turn it into something so much more than a circle of wah.  We brainstormed topics to have the clinic bring in experts for educational sessions before the support group portion of the night.  We shared tips and resources.  We exchanged numbers and talked diagnoses and IEPs and yoga and our secret hatred of bath time.  We ate cookies.

I left feeling somehow refreshed, recharged, and yes, supported.  And I'll brave the cold next month to go back again.