Living the Sky Life - Our Autism Journey

Stephanie Hanrahan was just your seemingly average housewife until she grew tired of pretending and decided to make her private journal public.  Since sharing her story, Stephanie has achieved viral success with her website,  Tinkles Her Pants , which chronicles her journey as wife to a husband with chronic illness, mother to special needs children, and a woman who often unravels then finds her fo...

Lisa Candera is a single mother to a teenage son with autism, lawyer, parent advocate, and certified life coach for moms raising kids with autism.   To learn more about Lisa's coaching services and book a free consultation, visit her website at  www.theautismmomcoach.com .  Follow Lisa on FB and IG: @theautismmomcoach. ***************************************** To purchase my book " Welcome to My L...

Tania van Bree is mom to Elli and Willem, ages 11 and 7 & wife to Marc. They live Buda, Texas. Her career background is in Music Administration & Education and she owns an Early Childhood Music Education business while pursuing a degree to become a certified Music Therapist. Willem was diagnosed with Autism at only 16 months of age. He is now considered a Level 3 Autistic with pre-verbal Apraxia....

Kourtney Bryan is a proud wife, stay-at-home mom, former accountant and science nerd. After 12 years in corporate accounting and finance, Kourtney began her new career as a stay-at-home mom with her four children. Shortly after, her then three-year-old son, began to struggle with a multitude of health issues. At the age of five, he was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder yet his physical and m...

Peggy Earnest is a pediatric speech/language pathologist.  She received her PhD from the University of Connecticut and has over 18 years of experience working in her own private practice called 'Columbia Motor Speech Therapy'. Peggy especially enjoys working with children with complex speech disorders, such as apraxia and dysarthria. Over the years, she has been inspired by many aspects of her job...

Jenna Kapes works for her local intermediate unit, assisting in both the Desktop Publishing and Behavioral Health Departments. She is a graduate of Susquehanna University with a dual major in Creative Writing and Publishing and Editing. She has recently finished drafting the manuscript to her debut memoir, titled,  Flipping the Behavioral Plan: A Sibling's Perspective on Asperger's , where she unp...

DeAndra Perry is a young mother from New York whose son was diagnosed with autism at two years old. She wrote the children's book " Cam's World " to show the world the very few things that go on in her son Cameron's daily life.  She wanted to create a fun but educational way to help other children understand autism.  DeAndra's goal is to spread awareness and to make a difference in this world as a...

Temple Grandin is a renowned American author, animal behavior expert and an advocate for autistic people. With support from her mother and guiding mentors at school, she completed her education successfully and made a flourishing career as an animal expert and a parenting guru for autistic children. Her inventions of a 'hug machine' to pacify autistic population and 'curved corrals' to reduce pani...

Leasa Hoogerwerf is the mother of two adult sons, one of which has nonverbal autism.  Leasa is a very passionate advocate who chose to share her family's journey through autism on social media via the Cody Speaks Facebook page so other families wouldn't feel so alone.   Leasa hopes that by sharing their life, they will inspire others that being nonverbal may not be forever. Cody now has words, man...

Dottie Davis lives in Mandeville, LA and is a mother of four children, with her youngest, John diagnosed with autism.  She served on the PTA at her son's school in order to stay involved with administration, teachers and staff.  Dottie also served as Parent Liaison for the Special Education Dept. for St. Tammany Parish School System for three years.  She helped to facilitate communication between...

Krista is the mother to Alex, age 19, diagnosed on the autism spectrum and Anna, age 17 who is neurotypical.  In her previous life before kids, she earned a bachelor's and master's degree in accounting from the University of Wisconsin – Madison and worked in public accounting for 11 years. Since then, she has spent her time raising two wonderful kids and enjoys sharing all types of information abo...

Maisie has been working with neurodivergent children, teens and adults since her undergraduate study at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1991. She moved away from the behavioral approach because she realized that supporting each one of her client's authenticity as an autistic individual needed to be the center of any therapeutic goals. Her role as a family coach is to foster a meaningf...

Jennifer Dunn is the mother of a beautiful 10-year-old daughter, Kya who was diagnosed with ASD.  Jennifer & Kya live in Vancouver, Canada.  Jennifer works full-time and also manages Kya's team of therapists. She is beyond proud to be on this journey with her incredible daughter.  Follow Jennifer & Kya's journey via her FB page: @Keeping Up with Kya ***************************************** To pur...

Amanda Owen is the executive director of Puzzle Pieces, a nonprofit organization based out of Owensboro, Kentucky, that serves individuals with intellectual disabilities. Amanda's whole life has been centered around loving, advocating, and impacting those with disabilities. Her passion and drive comes from having a brother with a disability, while also being a former special education teacher for...

This has been an emotionally tough few weeks.  Skyler turned 18 yesterday and with that milestone birthday comes appointments with both Social Security and the court system - for the guardianship hearing. I always thought I had more time and still can't wrap my head around the fact that he's now considered an adult. While we are entering a new phase of life with Skyler, the need for advocating doe...

Sally Willbanks is an award-winning Australian artist who put down her brushes at the end of 2019 to start ND Renegade, a clothing brand that aims to spread awareness and acceptance of neurodiversity. With her husband Jeff, Sally launched ND Renegade in January of 2020 in support of all neurodivergent people, including their own two children. You can connect with Sally via social media at: IG: @nd...

Lisa Lane grew up in Dillon, South Carolina. She attended the University of South Carolina, receiving her B.A. in Philosophy, summa cum laude, her M.A. in English, with honors, and her J.D. from the School of Law, with honors.  She joined the law firm of Kennedy Covington Lobdell and Hickman, becoming a partner in 1992. When her younger son was diagnosed with autism in 1996, she helped establish P...

Carrie Cariello is the author of What Color Is Monday, How Autism Changed One Family for the Better, and Someone I'm With Has Autism. She lives in Southern New Hampshire with her husband, Joe, and their five children.  Carrie is a contributor to the Huffington Post, TODAY Parents, the TODAY Show, Parents.com. She has been interviewed by NBC Nightly News, and also has a TEDx talk. She speaks regula...

Jackie Moore received a Bachelors degree in Rehabilitation Psychology from the University of Central Missouri.  Less than three years ago she launched Jordyn's Summer Shirt Project to teach Jordyn, her daughter with autism, job skills.  Jordyn has not only learned job skills, she's learned to independently do a job.  They have been featured on 94.9 The Bull radio station, 11 Alive News, Fox5 Atlan...

Amy Schlueter and her husband Jim are parents to Hannah (25) and Alex (24, ASD). She spends her time helping Alex navigate the world of young adults with special needs and cultivating his unique talent as an artist. She has come to love sharing her story as a mom of an older child on the autism spectrum. She, Jim, and Alex live on West Lake Okoboji in NW Iowa. Please visit Alex the Artist | Autism...

Born and raised in Cleveland Ohio, Aimee has practiced law for 37 years. In 1998, Aimee began practicing special education law, supporting children with special needs and their families. Aimee co-founded Special Education Services (SES) in 2001, a non-profit agency whose mission was to help families understand their children's special education needs and legal rights, as well as to educate parents...

Tracy Lynn lives in Northern Virginia and has been married to her best friend for 33 years. Tracy has her Bachelors of Science degree in Nursing and worked in critical care and school nursing.   Her full time job now is caring for the youngest of her four children, Eli, age 20, who is diagnosed with Autism, Intellectual Disability, Epilepsy and Ulcerative Colitis.  You can connect with Tracy on FB...

Sheryl St. Aubin is an autism mom that resides in Florida with her husband of fourteen years, Matt, and is a Mama to three beautiful, "socially unique" children. Sheryl is a writer and a blogger. Her writing has been featured on Finding Cooper's Voice, Filter Free Parents, Her View From Home, Love What Matters and Cafe Mom.   Since her special needs journey began, she has spent it building awarene...

Theresa DeMarco is wife, mother and now gift shop owner! She began her special education journey when her middle son, Sean was diagnosed with Autism at the age of four. Sean is now almost 23 years old.   Navigating school, IEPS and the transition into Adult Services, Theresa finds herself championing entrepreneurship and what this path has meant for her young adult son.    You can follow Theresa o...

Fred Marvel is 39 years old, has been married close to 15 years and is the father of three boys.  He was born and raised in Philadelphia where he works as a paralegal.  His oldest son Aleks (11) was diagnosed with Autism, ADHD and sensory processing disorder.  Fred started a podcast called the Spectrum Dad Podcast late last year because he wanted to help bring awareness to autism. Connect with Fre...