LA: Hey there! Welcome to my very first podcast episode. I'm super, super excited. This has been years in the making. Anyway, I'm Lori Ann, but my friends call me LA. I'm a battle-tested single mom, two extraordinary nonverbal, autistic teenage twin boys, and three incredible neurotypical young adults. If you found this podcast, my guess is that you're carrying more than most people will ever know. Whether you're a parent, grandparent, caregiver, teacher, therapist, aide, or someone who just loves a person with special needs, I'm really glad you're here. Now you might be wondering: who is this woman and why should I spend my precious and incredibly limited free time with her? Fair question. Here's the short answer. There was a season in my life where I was zealously advocating for my boys, meeting their every need, solo parenting. Desperately trying to make every dollar stretch. And during all that, triple negative breast cancer was tearing through me like a tornado in a trailer park. Aggressive, fast, and certainly uninvited. I was fighting for my life while also legally extricating myself from a toxic marriage. And I was still responsible for two beautiful little boys who relied on me for everything. I was literally a jack of all trades, but not in a good way. I was determined that cancer and divorce would not define their childhood and that their day-to-day would stay steady, even if I wasn't. In July 2019, my grueling treatment and my toxic marriage ended. The boys didn't miss a beat, and I survived the hardest year and a half of my life. I was finally able to exhale. Or so I thought, because soon after I lost my mom to pancreatic cancer. She was the one person, second only to me, who instinctively knew what my boys needed when they needed it, and how to step in without ever being asked to. When she died, I didn't just lose my mom. I lost my co-pilot. I walk in that grief every day. Okay, okay, that probably wasn't the shortest version. But somewhere between exhaustion and grief, I realized that if I didn't learn to laugh, I was going to collapse under the weight of it all. Laughter didn't mean things weren't hard. It meant I was still here, still breathing, still fighting, and still showing up. My life is hard. Truly it is. But it certainly isn't bad. I started noticing something else. The special needs parents around me, they were exhausted and grieving losses too. We are carrying schedules that would break most people. Our heads are on a swivel twenty-four-seven. A study actually showed that our stress levels are equivalent to that of a combat soldier. We're de-escalating behaviors, managing medications and insurance battles, dealing with dwindling services and finances and sleep deprivation. Ugh. That spikes my cortisol just saying that. So you know what? You're allowed to be overwhelmed You're allowed to love your children and still mourn the loss of what you hoped their lives would be. You're allowed to be happy and exhausted. You're allowed to want to break and be present. You're allowed to laugh and cry at things other people will never understand. We're living walking contradictions. It's too stressful to look too far ahead, but we literally have to plan for the future. Laughing through the tears isn't just a clever saying for us. It's common practice. This podcast was born out of real life. It isn't about toxic positivity or venting for sport. Who has time for that? it's about bringing much needed levity to an incredibly difficult life path. Let me be more specific. This is not a place for complaining. I'm not a complainer. I'm an explainer. There's a difference. Complaining keeps you stuck. Explaining creates understanding. When I talk about the hard parts, the meltdowns, the meetings, the misunderstandings, the financial strain, the fatigue, it's not to dwell there. It's to say this is what it actually looks like. But I'm gonna change my mindset and find the funny. Laughter is not denial, it's survival. Going forward, you will hear from people who see this life through different lenses. Special education teachers who orchestrate what happens in the classroom. Single moms and dads navigating without a built-in tag team or safety net, other parents walking similar roads at different stages of this journey, experts who bring insight and science-backed strategies, and friends and family who can speak to the special needs dynamic and their role in it. And just to be clear, I am not a doctor, therapist, or any type of medical professional. Although I play those roles in my own home sometimes. I'm just a single mom sharing lived experiences with laughter. Always consult your own medical professionals about what's right for you and your family. I want you to know this. You are not weak. You are not dramatic. You are not failing. And if you are laughing on the days you're too tired to even smile, then you are exactly what your kids need. Because let's face it, sometimes laughter is the only therapy we can afford. Real quick before I let you go, my next episode is one you don't want to miss. I'm sitting down with someone who completely changed the way I think about parenting through the hard days. if you've ever gone to bed wondering, am I doing enough? This conversation is for you. I have a feeling you're gonna leave it breathing a little easier. And if you're doubting yourself today, I'm happy to be the one to tell you you're absolutely doing better than you think. So welcome to Special Needs Daily. I'm so glad you came.