Category Archives: NACD Families

Official International Program Day Off

Thursday, November 27, 2014—NACD Worldwide Blessing and Day Off

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is the one day a year when we in the United States pause to come together as family and friends to give thanks for the blessings of the preceding year and to reunite.

All of us at NACD see all of you from around the world as part of our family, and we would like not only to thank you for letting us into your family, but also invite you to take Thursday off of program and join us in a universal day of Thanksgiving. You folks have worked hard to help your children and family members to have a better life, and like you, I feel blessed and privileged to have been able to help and participate.

Please take tomorrow, Thursday, off program to give thanks, but also to focus on yourselves and your immediate family and your extended NACD family. Most of us have seen changes over the past year, some life-altering fantastic changes, while others are still clawing their way forward; but we all have a chance and opportunity, and for that we can all be thankful.

We at NACD are privileged to know you and to serve you. Please, each and every one of you, congratulate yourselves on your successes and your efforts and try to appreciate the huge collective advances we, the global NACD family, have made over the past year. Next year we will all strive to be more and do better; but tomorrow please take the day off to give thanks, hopefully smile, and share in the collective NACD glow.

Bob

Learning Isn’t Tough

Learning isn’t tough. It actually can and should be fun and easy. It never ceases to amaze me how our schools can take learning, which can be so much fun and comes quite naturally to all of us, and make it all so very difficult, so painful, and fail so many of our children in the process.

I just saw one of our families who came out to Utah for their two “typical” girls to go skiing on the “best snow on Earth” and to get their evaluations and new programs. Both parents work full time and manage the girls and their short programs as they can. Both of the girls have been doing program since they were about two months old. The girls showed me their stuff at their evaluations, and both are doing very well; but big sister GiGi really showed off. GiGi had an auditory digit span of 5, and her reading tested out at the level of the average child in the nation in the middle of third grade. She has excellent language skills, is quite conversational, bilingual, and was skiing independently on her first day ever on the slopes. GiGi, during her little sister’s eval, sat quietly and read to herself, quite the mature young lady. All and all a great child whose little sister isn’t going to let her get too far ahead. One other rather significant piece of data in the equation is that GiGi is only three years old!

I also just received an email from Lyn Waldeck, one of our evaluators based outside of Dallas. Lyn has raised and home schooled five boys, while working with/for NACD since 1993. Lyn’s boys have all done exceptionally well, and she and all of us at NACD are very proud of all of them. Today’s news was that Grant, Lyn’s youngest, will be starting college classes this fall at fourteen! Grant attended school this year for his first and only school experience so he could get his feet wet in a classroom before taking college classes. He will be attending a really cool STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) school and will be off and running, chasing after his very successful big brothers.

We have seen many of our NACD kids enter college at fourteen and go on to have very successful college experiences and excel in their professions. Learning isn’t tough, but school often is. Someday we might succeed in fixing our very broken educational system, but in the meantime, parents, you had better take charge. Whether your child attends school or not, parents still need to assume the primary responsibility for their child’s education, and, of course, a little NACD program and guidance never hurts.

We are really proud of all of our exceptional children and their exceptional parents.

Light at the End of a Marathon

Leave a reply

Congratulations and thank you, Roxane! Roxane ran the entire marathon, not walked and ran, but ran the entire marathon and also raised $1,400 for our scholarship fund. But the biggest event was Roxane’s epiphany. I would like to share with you her own words describing her wonderful experience:

“A personal note about the race that I’d like to share with you. Before the race, I hugged my daughter Mila for making me so strong and allowing me to achieve such a grueling athletic performance. On race day, I received a very big gift. One I could call: ” And with the running, came the healing” …in a very unexpected yet beautiful way. As I walked to the starting line, my shirt proudly said “Mom of 4. My special-need kid rocks.” I realized how much I, as a mourning parent -you know, we all have to move on past the loss of a “perfect” child – needed this final step in my healing. Yes, we helped Mila overcome many of her challenges. Yes, she surpassed all of our expectations. But there was one thing I forbade myself to do for a long time. Maybe out of shame, maybe out of guilt, or to protect her, or for reasons still unclear to me: I did not want the world to know that she had a genetic disorder. I did not even discuss it with many of our family members. I kept it in the hiding from a lot of people I knew. Yet, there I was, walking around 25,000 random strangers letting the world know that my child was different. And that was OK. That was more than OK…that was my very personal running leitmotif. Many people out there were running for cures, lost ones, personal records…and I was running with a bold statement about my own daughter on my shirt, finally letting go of the shame, getting an immense pride out of it. And guess what, that statement healed my soul and also made sure I would run all the way. And for once in my life, that “special-need” label did not drag me down or expect more of me…it made me take off, it took me one step above them all. And with the running came the healing. Final step of a long mourning process, first step of a great marathon race.

Thank you, NACD, and thank you, Mila.”
Roxane

And thank you, Mila and Roxane. Our NACD moms and kids are the best!

Raising Expectations

It’s a Marathon – Part 2!

1 Reply

Yesterday I posted information about a fundraiser by one of our NACD moms. As Part 2 of the report of Roxane’s marathon training and fundraising efforts, please see her most recent note below:

Dear friends and family,

Miami Marathon for NACD Foundation I trained for 5 months. I ran in the Florida heat, through hurricane storms, on very dry days and soaked ones.

I woke up at the crack of dawn, or stayed up on a treadmill late at night.

I ran with hurt knees, injured toes, split shins, painful hips and even a broken shoulder once.

I ran easy and I ran hard. On beautiful days and some very dark.

I challenged myself to go just a little further each time. I kept telling myself I could do it, ignoring my body’s plea to quit.

And because I did all this, next week I will run a marathon, from mile one to twenty-six.

I swear I won’t fail; that part is easy. Because all I’ll have to do is remember: I am running for my daughter, to make sure other kids get to be just like her.

Thanks for your support; every dime and every step counts!
Roxane

http://www.razoo.com/story/Miami-Marathon

It Appears That…

Bob Doman's thoughts on thinking and human development.