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Well, welcome.

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Today I am very excited to have a special guest on Unlimited Parenting.

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Carrie is the author of Finding Kind, a heartfelt and deeply personal account of her journey

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as an autism mom.

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In her book, Carrie shares her initial awakening to her son Brady's neurological differences.

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The early years of adapting to life as a parent of a child with autism and the profound growth

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that comes from learning to accept and appreciate your child for who they are.

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Her story is one of love, resilience, and finding joy amidst challenges and uncertainty.

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So Carrie, thank you so much for being here with us today.

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Thank you so much for having me.

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I'm excited for our conversation.

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Yes, me too.

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I think my first question is, your book, it opens with a really powerful raw moment for

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parents of children who are neurodiverse.

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I think they can deeply relate to it.

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Can you go back to that day and share why you chose to start your story there?

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Yeah, you know, it was, it's actually kind of funny because I'm not sure I would have

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remembered all the details of that day if I hadn't been trained by my son's therapist

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to write down the events of things that would happen immediately after they happened so

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that I could share it with them and they could kind of help me through what did I do right?

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What did I do wrong?

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You know, what could I have done differently?

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Because when I started writing the book and really pulling things together, I pulled up

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that note and it was something I had almost blocked out at that point because it was one

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of the harder moments.

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You know, there's always going to be moments where you just feel like you're out of control

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in parenting a child whose brain is operating in a different way that you're used to.

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As a neurotypical individual, I was not understanding what was going on in my son's brain.

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So I went through those notes and it just struck me that I think every other parent

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who has gone through really trying to train themselves to parent in a different manner

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with a neurodiverse kid would understand.

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So the way that my parents parented me, I tried that on my son for the first few years

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and it really didn't work.

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And that was a hard lesson to learn or a wall to reach over because I felt like my parents

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were good parents and they did the right thing.

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When I, you know, what I thought was misbehaved, they corrected me and I fell in line.

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And that story was really a moment where I had to let go of the way that I had been parenting

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in the past and try to trust the experts who had been trying to help us, the therapists

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and the BCBAs and the folks who were telling me that my reaction to my son's overreactions

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were just feeding him.

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So they were giving him this negative attention that I never thought somebody would ever want

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because I don't like any negative attention ever.

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I only like positive attention.

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And I didn't understand that when my son would kind of lose his emotional regulation that

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my inability to keep myself calm and cool and reserved was just feeding him even more.

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So the story was really one where I finally got to the point where I didn't know what

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to do anymore and I had to separate myself from him.

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And he was at such a young age and I didn't know whether he would hurt himself, whether

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he would destroy things in the house, you know, whether there were, you know, there

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was going to be permanent damage done by taking the advice of these therapists and just sitting

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out, taking a timeout.

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And as it turns out, you know, that was kind of the first time when I realized that when

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I pulled myself away and I said, Brady, I can't come back to you until you can speak nicely

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to me, until you can speak in a calm voice.

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And eventually after what seemed like a really long time, it was probably only a couple of

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minutes, he calmed down and we were able to kind of reunite.

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And the light bulb went on for me like, okay, these folks know what they're talking about.

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I've got to work on my own reactions to things so that I can better help my son in those

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moments that are really hard for him to control.

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I think a therapist said to me once, you know, that a dysregulated parent cannot regulate

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a child.

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100%.

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And it didn't make sense until I really was in a very similar situation to what you just

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described.

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And I said, you know, if I've tried everything else, what is it going to hurt if I try this

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one more thing?

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It just feels, and I don't know, maybe you can relate to this.

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It feels very antithetical, right?

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Like I don't want to leave you.

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I want to stay right next to you and try to support you through this.

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But much like yourself, when I really took that step back, it really made a world of

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difference.

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It did.

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And as I started to get better at it, I realized it was good for me too.

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You know, it was me raising my heart rate even more and more and more.

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It was raising his heart rate.

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And it was just escalating things to the point where, you know, I would just crumble at the

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end of the day when something like that happened.

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And being able to really practice, and that was the key to it, you know, it wasn't that

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I just got, I said, oh, okay, this works.

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And I was able to just do it perfectly from that point forward.

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That's not how it works.

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You have to practice regulating your own reaction to things.

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And that took a lot of time.

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And I still, you know, I have a teenager now, so I still don't regulate my own emotions

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as well as I should.

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It's a constant battle.

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But you know, just understanding that the discipline that my parents used in the 70s

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and 80s worked on me great, but my kid is different and my kid's brain responds to things

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differently.

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And as a parent, as you're going through, you know, all of these experiences raising

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a neurodiverse child, you have to be open to recognizing that your strategies have to

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change too.

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So.

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Isn't that the truth?

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Yeah.

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So your book is called Finding Kind.

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Where does that acronym come from?

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Does it sort of stem from kind of some of those situations or?

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Well, so the kind stands for kids with invisible neurological differences.

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And I actually started writing this book in 2018.

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The first part of it was kind of a compilation of all of these really hard stories, you know.

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And when I got to a point where I stopped writing and I let my husband read it, he was,

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he just said, Carrie, this just sounds like it's really hard to be Brady's mom.

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Is that really what you want to have put out in the world?

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And it absolutely was not.

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And, but one of the things, common themes that I noticed in a lot of the type of community

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and school situations, you know, Brady looks just like every other kid.

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And so when he would not be able to regulate his emotions or when he would bolt out of

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a play date or bolt out of a school party and try to escape.

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And you know, when those kinds of things would happen, I felt like all the eyes were on me

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saying what a horrible mother she must be, you know, because he doesn't, I mean, if,

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if I could count the number of times people would say, well, he doesn't look autistic.

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You know, that it was, it then became somehow a reflection on my parenting and not an understanding

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that his brain was wired differently to respond to these things.

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So the invisibility was what I was writing about at the time.

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And honestly, you know, I came to a very strong faith through this whole process and I feel

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like God put kind in my lap.

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And he said, you know, this is going to be something that resonates with families of

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not just kids with autism, but it really covers a multitude of different neurodiversities.

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So my son also has ADHD, but dyslexia and sensory processing disorder and OCD, there

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are so many similarities in the responses that come from those invisible neurological

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differences that I felt like, you know, it really would touch a lot of families who are

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dealing with a wide variety of neurodiversities that they're at home.

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So, and in reading your book, invisibility is really a recurring theme in the story,

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whether it's a blessing or a challenge, but how did you learn to balance embracing your

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son's neurodiversity while also advocating for the grace and understanding that he deserved?

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Well, it became easier when I became more open about it, to be honest.

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So I spent the first two to three years of after Brady's diagnosis of really keeping

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it quiet.

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And that was out of fear.

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We didn't know anything about autism when we figured out that was what was going on

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with Brady.

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And it scared me to death when we first came to that realization.

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And I felt like everybody else around us, if they heard the word autism, what were they

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going to do?

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Were they going to keep their kid from wanting to play with my son?

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Were they going to kick him out of school?

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Were they going to not let him join a team?

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You know, all of these fears really just weighed us down to the point where, you know, he had

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an aide in preschool.

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And when other parents would say, well, why does Brady have an aide in the classroom?

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I would just say, oh, he has a few developmental delays we're just working through.

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And so that whole time that we kept it quiet, I was in acting mode.

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You know, I was putting on a performance for everybody.

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I was saying, oh, everything's fine.

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You know, and that didn't give them the opportunity to learn about what autism is or what ADHD

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is and to learn that there's a reason behind the things that Brady struggles with, whether

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it's socially with the other children or academically, you know, being able to follow an organized

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plan or those kinds of things.

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And when we finally came to terms with the fact that, you know, we were also in fix-it

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mode for the first couple of years, like, oh, if we just work really hard, you know,

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this won't even be a thing by the time he gets to kindergarten or first grade.

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And we had to make peace with the fact that this is the way our son's brain is wired and

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we have to learn how to try to help him as much as we can.

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And hiding it from him and from the rest of the world isn't serving our purpose of trying

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to make the world a more accepting place for him.

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So, you know, and that really, it wasn't this epiphany necessarily that I had on my own.

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It was we wound up transferring Brady to a school that was specifically for kids with

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learning challenges.

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So there were kids with autism and ADHD and dyslexia and OCD at this school.

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And all of a sudden I was in this environment where the parents were just openly sharing

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about everything that they were experiencing and talking about medications and talking

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about doctor's appointments and therapies.

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And it was like a weight was lifted off of my shoulders.

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And so when we were able to transition outside of a school environment like that, we started

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to become more and more comfortable with sharing exactly who Brady is and the things that he

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struggles with.

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You know, we're in an environment now where we're looking at high schools.

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He's going to be in high school next year.

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And so I'm being very honest with the people, with the organizations that we're applying

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to about this is how autism presents itself in Brady.

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But we're not hiding it from anybody.

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We're not trying to make Brady pretend like he doesn't have autism.

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And so that was another kind of a cool thing with him in writing the foreword for the book.

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So you know, he wanted to be able to say, look, I have autism and ADHD, but I also have

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all these other interests and I want to help you understand how to understand me because

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to me, I'm normal and you're all the ones that are different.

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And so, you know, with anything of an invisible nature, I think, you know, we are so blessed

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with the things that Brady can do.

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He was able to walk.

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He's able to talk.

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He's got all of these gifts and talents that are there.

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And you know, we just have to help people in general and the people in his life understand

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better what neurodiversity means and how they can be prepared for it.

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Because it's less about changing our children for the world and more about making the world

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more accepting and understanding of our children.

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Right.

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Exactly.

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100%.

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Throughout the book, you mentioned your faith playing a really significant role in your

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journey.

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Can I ask how, if it evolved alongside your parenting experiences or if your faith at

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all changed throughout this journey?

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It definitely was a long process.

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It wasn't a lightning bolt that came down from the sky.

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It would have been a lot easier, but taking a lot less time.

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But, you know, I had grown up just kind of at an arm's length with faith.

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You know, we went to church as a kid because I think that's what my parents thought good

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parents did, you know, they went to church.

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But it was never a personal relationship.

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And really, you know, what changed with me, I had always felt like I was in control of

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my life.

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I was a planner both professionally and personally.

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And I always wanted to be the one that was driving the success in my life.

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And when we discovered that Brady, you know, had autism and ADHD, all of a sudden I wasn't

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in control anymore.

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And I fought that for a long time.

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And so when I talk about that we didn't disclose Brady's autism for two or three years, that

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was because I was still trying to control it and fix it and make it go away.

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And frankly, I was making myself miserable.

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I mean, I had this beautiful boy.

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He is a super loving kid.

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And he had all of these things that I was missing because I was so embroiled in this,

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you know, frustration that my life plan and parenting plan hadn't come out the way that

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I had wanted it to.

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And I had to think I had to hit that point to say there's got to be some other way for

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me to understand what we're going through.

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And it was a very slow process.

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It was a drip process.

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And it was a lot of nudges that I got to first to go to church and then to go to a Bible

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study.

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And what I learned through that process was that there was absolute purpose in the way

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that my son was made.

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And there was purpose in the way I was made to be his mom.

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And the gifts and talents and things that I am able to do well are helping me now to

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make the world a better place for kind kids like my son.

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And realizing that this was the plan all along.

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I didn't wind up with a messed up plan.

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I wound up on the right plan.

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I just didn't know it was the right plan to begin with.

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And so it was a very long road over several years of learning and studying and also seeing

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it in my son.

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You know, my son has a very strong faith too that started very early with him.

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And that was mind boggling to me because I really didn't think that someone like my son

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who saw things very black and white and needed to hold things and have tangible things in

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his hands could really grasp something that was unseen and that was invisible.

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So it was just, it still is.

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It's a very big part of who I am and the reason that I think I've gotten to this point of

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acceptance and not just acceptance, like I am so proud of who this kid is and what he

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does.

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And I am so excited about the avenue that has been placed in front of me with Kind Families

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to get to meet people like you and organizations all over the place, all over the world really

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who are focused with this same idea that we need to help the rest of the world understand

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what neurodiversity is and how you can better work with them.

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It's so underrated and amazing how many opportunities our kids have presented for us, all the people

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we would have never met.

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And you know, we frequently joke, you know, there wasn't this chapter in what to expect

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when you're expecting.

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And we're all kind of navigating this almost by the seat of our pants, taking it day by

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day and we get these little bursts of, you know, epiphanies and joy when we find books

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like yours that help us not only connect, but really someone else who understands the

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world that we're trying to navigate through right now.

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Right.

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And honestly, when I started writing, it was because I couldn't find a book that spoke

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to me about what it felt like to be an autism mom.

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I found a lot of medical journals.

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I found a lot of therapy journals.

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I found, you know, a lot of like the things like what to do as an autism parent type of

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things.

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But what I really thrived in was the conversations that I would have with other parents who were

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going through very similar parenting journeys.

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And that's where I decided to take the finding kind from not just the hard stories that I

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wrote in 2018.

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And then I stopped because I didn't know where to take it.

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But it wasn't the time at that point because I hadn't seen all the awesome things that

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Brady could do yet.

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I hadn't fully understood all of his gifts and talents.

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I hadn't seen these achievements that I know should hopefully inspire other parents who

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maybe are starting with their two-year-old or three-year-old.

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And they have no idea what the future is going to hold, but there's lots of hope and inspiration.

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And that's where, you know, I'm just so grateful.

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You know, God kind of opened this road for me.

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I was a financial services person for 30 years, and he gave me the opportunity to sell that

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practice two years ago to focus on kind families.

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And I think it was just the perfect timing to be able to, you know, look back on 13 years

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of being Brady's mom and be able to not only relate with the hard stuff, but celebrate

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the awesome stuff with families who are in the same boat.

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Speaking of awesome stuff, there's an amazing story in your book that I just want to shout

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out without giving too much away.

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I think my favorite part was Brady's lip-sync contest.

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It brings so much joy.

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I want to know, how do you encourage him to embrace his natural talents?

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And you talked about that a little bit, but what advice do you give to parents in nurturing

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their children's passions?

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Because that part of the book is really funny.

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Well, I think you can tell, you know, where your kids' passions lie, because especially

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with kids with autism, that is going to be their very extreme interest, right?

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And Brady always, from the time he was a little kid, loved to be on stage.

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He loved to grab a microphone.

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I mean, he was in a talent show in first grade, just doing a little diddy on a keyboard.

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And he finished one song, and the emcee came over to him to say thank you.

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And Brady snatched the microphone out of his hand in front of 100 people and stood up and

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decided he was going to do another.

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My second song today will be...

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Yeah, four.

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So, you know, he'd been in drama and he'd been in theater.

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And we just encouraged that with him because I really feel like he's a creative brain.

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He's a writer.

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He's a performer.

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He has zero fear of being up on stage.

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And that is a gift that not a lot of people have.

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But the hard part as a parent is letting them try something that they could fail miserably

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at, right?

305
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So, you know, the old saying failure is not an option.

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Oh, it is absolutely an option with a lot of the stuff that we, that our kids want to

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do.

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And as a parent, your initial reaction is I want to protect them from ever being hurt.

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And so I will say that that lip sync contest, we were in this room full of teenagers and

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it was so frightening to me that he would get up on that stage.

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And I mean, there were some fantastic acts.

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I mean, these kids had this thing choreographed and perfectly lip synced.

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And my son was going to get up and rick roll everybody.

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So, you know, if you don't know what rick rolling is, you can Google that.

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But the response that the kids had was, I think, just seeing his confidence and his

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exuberance and his passion for it and the fact that he got up there all by himself,

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like all these other kids did these group things.

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And I will just never forget it.

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And one of the counselors came up to me afterwards and he was like, I think that's the bravest

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thing I've ever seen anyone do.

321
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And, you know, I agree.

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And I think that that was just another lesson.

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And there's several actually in the book about these things that Brady decided to try, which

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and my first reaction was like, no, that could turn out badly, poorly.

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And you know, you have to let go and let them have these achievements and failures.

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You know, I do like to say, you know, I don't want anybody to think from the book that,

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you know, everything got wrapped up in a nice little bow when he was 13 years old and that

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he doesn't struggle with things anymore.

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He does.

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And he has those failures.

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But he has these wins now that he can remember in the hard moments to say, OK, I got up on

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stage in front of 500 teenagers and won a lip sync contest.

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And you know, so this thing is hard and it might cause me some anxiety, but I can do

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hard things.

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And I think that's a good thing to let go.

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We try to talk about that a lot with parents that and this is the story is such a gift

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to me because it really encapsulates everything that we try to say when we tell we try to

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tell parents, you know, when you don't know what to expect, you have to have high expectations

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because our children will continuously surprise us because my first reaction to your story

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would have been, oh, my gosh, I would have never let my kid do that because they could

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have looked that in the face and said, you know what, let's give it a shot.

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We're going to give it a try.

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And the kids were amazing to him.

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And I will never I mean, there's a picture in my mind that will never go away of him

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standing on a stage holding the trophy in the air like he just, you know, won the boxing

346
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championship of the world or something.

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And you know, that will be that will always be with him.

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And we have to allow our kids wins even if it's hard for us to watch the fails.

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You know, so it's it's just something that we have to remind ourselves over and over

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00:24:35,960 --> 00:24:40,720
again if we don't give them the chance to win, they never will.

351
00:24:40,720 --> 00:24:41,720
So true.

352
00:24:41,720 --> 00:24:42,720
Yeah.

353
00:24:42,720 --> 00:24:47,660
You you mentioned briefly earlier that you spent 30 years in the financial service industry.

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And then, you know, you are here with this incredibly established career.

355
00:24:51,880 --> 00:24:57,480
But you also mentioned that you walk away from that to start a kind family podcast.

356
00:24:57,480 --> 00:24:59,440
How how did that come about?

357
00:24:59,440 --> 00:25:02,320
How did that transition happen?

358
00:25:02,320 --> 00:25:06,320
You know, it was just it was a long, slow tugging at my heart.

359
00:25:06,320 --> 00:25:09,960
So I had always wanted to be in the financial services business.

360
00:25:09,960 --> 00:25:10,960
I loved it.

361
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I was a 401k consultant.

362
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So I got to meet with a lot.

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I got to do a lot of education, which I love to do with employees about how to save for

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retirement.

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But it started to become very corporate.

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It started to become less about the employees and more about regulation and compliance and

367
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all this stuff.

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00:25:29,240 --> 00:25:32,320
And so I thought that's what was really pulling me away.

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00:25:32,320 --> 00:25:39,580
But as again, as we started to see Brady grow and thrive, where I started to really feel

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the most joy was when I was sitting across from another parent or when I was giving a

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talk at my church mom's group, you know, about it and and seeing that I could just positively

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impact and lift up some parents that were going through very similar things that I was

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going through.

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And then as you know, as my faith continued to grow, I was really trying hard to trust

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in a path that that was very different from what I had set out to do.

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00:26:08,240 --> 00:26:16,360
And this, you know, the buyer being approached to sell my business was just my sign that

377
00:26:16,360 --> 00:26:19,800
this was time, you know, that it was time for me to step away.

378
00:26:19,800 --> 00:26:22,400
I'd done what I needed to do there.

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00:26:22,400 --> 00:26:28,840
And I couldn't put my full focus and attention into the kind community while I was still

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doing a full time job on the side.

381
00:26:31,960 --> 00:26:38,240
And that that stepping away and that that just kind of wall that I put up, I mean, I

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00:26:38,240 --> 00:26:39,520
let all my licenses go.

383
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I was a CFP.

384
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I let that license go.

385
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And I literally just shut the door on it and walked away to focus on this 100 percent.

386
00:26:47,800 --> 00:26:51,320
And it's just I know every day that it's the right thing.

387
00:26:51,320 --> 00:26:56,160
It was the right thing to do because of the joy that I feel in doing it and the impact

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that I see it have on Brady.

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I mean, he sees me out there every day advocating for him and advocating for other families.

390
00:27:05,760 --> 00:27:09,080
And he's he's right alongside of me watching that.

391
00:27:09,080 --> 00:27:13,940
So I think it was it was the path that I needed to take.

392
00:27:13,940 --> 00:27:15,640
And I can't wait to see where it goes.

393
00:27:15,640 --> 00:27:20,080
I'm still kind of, you know, we're new and in this in this field.

394
00:27:20,080 --> 00:27:26,400
But I'd love to get out and get another book out there that, you know, on some some further

395
00:27:26,400 --> 00:27:32,120
topics on kind and on faith and those kinds of things, because the feedback has just been

396
00:27:32,120 --> 00:27:33,120
really good.

397
00:27:33,120 --> 00:27:34,840
And I think I'm where I need to be.

398
00:27:34,840 --> 00:27:38,520
I love that you feel so so solid in that.

399
00:27:38,520 --> 00:27:40,120
That's what makes me feel like.

400
00:27:40,120 --> 00:27:41,120
Yes.

401
00:27:41,120 --> 00:27:42,720
I have more people need to read this book.

402
00:27:42,720 --> 00:27:45,420
How did you get to this space in your life?

403
00:27:45,420 --> 00:27:48,860
What was this journey?

404
00:27:48,860 --> 00:27:51,720
What can listeners expect from your podcast?

405
00:27:51,720 --> 00:27:53,800
Are you interviewing other families?

406
00:27:53,800 --> 00:27:55,600
And then also, where can we find it?

407
00:27:55,600 --> 00:27:56,600
Sure.

408
00:27:56,600 --> 00:28:00,440
So it's Apple and Spotify right now, the Kind Families podcast.

409
00:28:00,440 --> 00:28:06,720
I have a lot of people like you actually, people who are in, you know, advocates in

410
00:28:06,720 --> 00:28:08,600
the neurodiversity community.

411
00:28:08,600 --> 00:28:09,800
I have therapists.

412
00:28:09,800 --> 00:28:11,600
I have other parents.

413
00:28:11,600 --> 00:28:12,900
I actually had Brady on.

414
00:28:12,900 --> 00:28:18,320
That was one of my most popular episodes to talk about what it feels like to be a kind

415
00:28:18,320 --> 00:28:19,840
kid.

416
00:28:19,840 --> 00:28:22,040
I have had other authors on.

417
00:28:22,040 --> 00:28:23,840
I was really fortunate.

418
00:28:23,840 --> 00:28:30,840
I took a writer's workshop with a guy named Bob Goff, who writes bestsellers on kind of

419
00:28:30,840 --> 00:28:33,320
faith adjacent type topics.

420
00:28:33,320 --> 00:28:34,780
And he came on.

421
00:28:34,780 --> 00:28:35,780
He was my writing coach.

422
00:28:35,780 --> 00:28:38,880
So he came on the show and he's just a bundle of joy.

423
00:28:38,880 --> 00:28:40,760
I mean, and I'm not saying that facetiously.

424
00:28:40,760 --> 00:28:44,440
I mean, he has got joy exuding from him.

425
00:28:44,440 --> 00:28:50,240
So you know, I have people that talk about dealing, you know, even therapists talking

426
00:28:50,240 --> 00:28:55,200
about dealing with kind of being in an in-between state in your life.

427
00:28:55,200 --> 00:28:57,800
And so every day I'm excited.

428
00:28:57,800 --> 00:29:02,840
And you know, we finished up our first season and we've got our second season where we've

429
00:29:02,840 --> 00:29:06,240
already got a bunch of recordings.

430
00:29:06,240 --> 00:29:13,680
And I just keep meeting more and more people that are passionate about driving success

431
00:29:13,680 --> 00:29:17,260
for neurodivergence, not only children, but adults.

432
00:29:17,260 --> 00:29:24,960
So people in the workplace about, you know, including neurodivergence in the hiring process

433
00:29:24,960 --> 00:29:31,160
and supervisory process and helping them be successful in their passions.

434
00:29:31,160 --> 00:29:33,400
And then sometimes I'll just throw in one for fun.

435
00:29:33,400 --> 00:29:36,480
That's tough because I like to have fun.

436
00:29:36,480 --> 00:29:37,480
Absolutely.

437
00:29:37,480 --> 00:29:42,480
I don't want to say too much without giving away all of the great parts of the book.

438
00:29:42,480 --> 00:29:47,360
So definitely, this is definitely a read and I'm definitely going to go and listen to Brady's

439
00:29:47,360 --> 00:29:48,360
podcast episode.

440
00:29:48,360 --> 00:29:49,840
That is exciting.

441
00:29:49,840 --> 00:29:50,840
Yeah.

442
00:29:50,840 --> 00:29:56,960
But I think my last question is, I'm curious, and this is one of those almost like a crystal

443
00:29:56,960 --> 00:30:04,000
ball moment, if you could go back and give yourself a piece of advice or give yourself

444
00:30:04,000 --> 00:30:08,160
that crystal ball to say like, this is going to, you know, you're so upset about this right

445
00:30:08,160 --> 00:30:13,480
now or you're worried, but it's all going to work itself out during those early years

446
00:30:13,480 --> 00:30:14,480
with Brady.

447
00:30:14,480 --> 00:30:17,600
What would you want to have known then?

448
00:30:17,600 --> 00:30:25,240
Well, I think I would, there's a couple pieces of advice I got later on that I will regurgitate.

449
00:30:25,240 --> 00:30:31,080
And one of them is that your child is the exact same kid the day before the diagnosis

450
00:30:31,080 --> 00:30:32,360
as the day after.

451
00:30:32,360 --> 00:30:33,360
Yeah.

452
00:30:33,360 --> 00:30:40,080
And, you know, there is the piece of paper that you get in your hand does not change

453
00:30:40,080 --> 00:30:43,400
that that child was given to you as a gift.

454
00:30:43,400 --> 00:30:48,200
That child has his own gifts and talents and you have the gifts and talents to be his or

455
00:30:48,200 --> 00:30:51,440
her parent.

456
00:30:51,440 --> 00:30:57,760
And the second thing is it just never underestimate what your child can do.

457
00:30:57,760 --> 00:31:05,720
I think the surprises that we've had along the way are what has helped change our viewpoint

458
00:31:05,720 --> 00:31:08,400
on what Brady's future will look like.

459
00:31:08,400 --> 00:31:13,720
And they started out very young, you know, like if you surprise like him finally being

460
00:31:13,720 --> 00:31:18,240
able to, you know, go to a Sunday school class and make it through a Sunday school class

461
00:31:18,240 --> 00:31:22,560
or, you know, there's a story in the book about him reading a creative writing story

462
00:31:22,560 --> 00:31:24,480
that he wrote about me.

463
00:31:24,480 --> 00:31:32,040
And it was something that I kind of wanted to have look like all the other moms stories.

464
00:31:32,040 --> 00:31:37,800
But when Brady's came out and it was so creative and so different, I was like, I'm the proud

465
00:31:37,800 --> 00:31:38,800
mom in the room.

466
00:31:38,800 --> 00:31:43,680
I have all the other moms looking at me wishing that their kid wrote that about me.

467
00:31:43,680 --> 00:31:49,680
And so I think it's that it's just remember that, you know, the diagnosis isn't who your

468
00:31:49,680 --> 00:31:51,040
kid is.

469
00:31:51,040 --> 00:31:56,860
They're the same kid and never underestimate what they can do and how they might surprise

470
00:31:56,860 --> 00:31:58,360
you in the future.

471
00:31:58,360 --> 00:32:00,840
So that's wonderful.

472
00:32:00,840 --> 00:32:04,000
Well, Carrie, thank you so much for your time.

473
00:32:04,000 --> 00:32:05,460
Thank you for the book.

474
00:32:05,460 --> 00:32:07,420
It's called Spying the Kind.

475
00:32:07,420 --> 00:32:10,640
It's a definite read and also check out the podcast.

476
00:32:10,640 --> 00:32:12,600
Thanks again for your time here.

477
00:32:12,600 --> 00:32:13,600
Thank you so much.

478
00:32:13,600 --> 00:32:21,920
It was a great conversation.

479
00:32:21,920 --> 00:32:26,840
Thank you so much, everyone out there for listening in and know that if you are in Idaho

480
00:32:26,840 --> 00:32:33,920
or planning on moving to Idaho and have questions on systems or services for children with disabilities,

481
00:32:33,920 --> 00:32:38,080
please consider reaching out to us on our website at I pull Idaho.

482
00:32:38,080 --> 00:32:42,760
That's I P U L Idaho dot org.

483
00:32:42,760 --> 00:32:48,080
Or by calling us at 208-342-5884.

484
00:32:48,080 --> 00:32:50,160
Be sure to tune in next time.

485
00:32:50,160 --> 00:32:53,160
Until then, this has been Unlimited Parenting.

486
00:32:53,160 --> 00:32:54,160
Thanks for listening.

487
00:32:54,160 --> 00:33:15,040
choice