I still remember like it was a few days ago when Brian and I attended a church event related to incorporating special needs families into churches. There was a panel of special needs parents with an audience to ask questions. We were in the audience, but we lived this scenario as a special needs family attending church. One person asked, “If we take care of this population, we may not know what to do.” I remember leaning over to Brian and saying, “There are a lot of days we do not know what to do, and we are the parents!” He agreed and said, “Yes.”
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Practical Tip#33 Car Safety- Do you have this?
This Indiana winter has been dangerous! It seems like every few days there has been ice or freezing rain. Soon…spring will arrive.
The other weekend I offered to take Tristan back to his school. It’s a long haul from our home to his residential school. The previous day was sunny. I thought I would enjoy a long drive. We had a break in the weather and it wasn’t too snowy or icy when I offered.
Then 20 minutes before I left the snow started to fall. Since I would be driving south away from the lake effect, I thought it would be no big deal. Wrong!!! The first 30 minutes of the drive were slow going. The snow was coming down! This went on for another 90 minutes of the drive. I saw several cars in ditches and accidents. As I continued driving I counted more and more cars in ditches. I stopped counting at 20. I prayed that we would make it safe. Then the thoughts of worry washed over my mind. What if we got into a car accident and I was unconscious? Tristan would be helpless.
We arrived to his group home safe.
I arrived back home safe.
But I couldn’t shake the thought of the what if’s. I knew I needed to do something,
I was very excited to find these seat belt covers. After reviewing and researching on this topic this is what I discovered. It is the most helpful for EMT’s to know the name, date of birth, and illness.
There are many different kinds on the internet to order. I liked this on etsy.com by HenryDarling, because it looks like Tristan won’t be able to take it apart. Also it displays his name. I think it would be helpful in an emergency for someone to be able to say his name and get his attention. For the diagnosis being displayed, there will be no guessing what disability Tristan has.
I was thinking…with his name being displayed, we will be able to train him to always sit in the back seat with his name tag! He will probably think this is some kind of new game.
I ordered mine today and I will have peace of mind during an emergency that Tristan will be taken care of. If you know of anyone with a special needs child consider gifting them with one.
Practical Tip #32- A Golden Resource
I am always grateful for the people God puts in our lives to help with Tristan. Sometimes these people have had business or service ideas that are big, and we benefit from them. One place I want to talk about is Harsha Behavioral Center in Terre Haute, Indiana.
The Practical Side of Autism 