These are my boys. George, Ben, Conrad and Wilson. I think it might have easier to fly to the moon than to get them to stand still for five seconds to take a picture of them. But they did it.

I seriously don't know what I would do without these two in my life. Especially the bigger one. (wink) He is so good for me and is the perfect dad for Conrad. Just the other day he called while on the road just to say that he missed hanging out with Connie.
As soon as Matt walks in the door Conrad pushes his way towards him by any means possible. Even if that means bowling people over in the meantime.

Dear Reader,

I have been thinking a lot about a question I get a lot by friends and strangers a like. It is a variation on the following, "How do you do it?" or "I don't know how you do it!"

These questions can be so annoying and hurtful. As I often think to myself, am I doing someting wrong, am I a bad mom, how do I do what? is my life that terrible that they would not want to be in my shoes? (In other words; have a differently abled son, twins and a singleton child)

How do I do it? I just do.

I love my children fiercely and will do anything for them. I will fight for them, protect them, advocate for them, play monopoly with them (but I will be hating every minute), get my hair pulled on, bitten, scratched, hugged, kissed, yelled at, and tell them I love them every single day.

Being the mother of a disabled child is very challenging and utterly exhausting as I know some of you who have disabled children know. But so is being the mother of 'typical' children.

The advantage I think to having a son with AS is that he never talks back, never asks for anything while at the store, never whines and is typically happy all the time (except when dessert or his bath is over, wink) He is satisfied with his life as it is.

But then, I often find myself second guessing decisions I make for him. For example: does he really want milk to drink, does he care what he is wearing? These are all trivial, I know, but I can't help wondering. The things he does seem to care about and lets us know, are the programs he watches on TV-he does let us know if he is content watching what is currently on or not. If he is not content he will seek out the remote and put it in your hand until the channel is more suitable to his taste. So he does make some decisions :)

Being the mother to the four boys I have been given has made me not only the mother I am today but the woman I am today. I know for certain that that is true.

Having been asked these questions countless times has made me look at my life and ask myself, How do I do it? and I always answer, because I just do. I don't do it alone, however. I have a very supportive husband who knows if I have had a hard day the minute he walks through the door and says to me, "Get outta here, I've got this." I also have a caregiver who comes everyday after school to play with Conrad and take him on outings.

This is how I do it.

Dear Reader,

It has been almost four years since I began my journey to write a book about my son, Conrad and our journey with his diagnosis of Angleman Syndrome. I did not do it by myself, however. It was always my vision to create a book about AS with several different voices (those intimately involved with someone living with AS). After many letters asking for essays, poems and pictures of said people I have a book compiled. It is curently in the line up at Tate Publishing to start production in March.

For those of you who have been so kind to share your stories with me and now the world, Thank you and Congratulations!