Something Special Magazine

Well it’s official, one of my paintings is going to be featured on the cover of Something Special Magazine! It is a painting of Hailey and I can’t disclose which one, you’ll have to check back soon to see it. “Something Special” is a Magazine that is both a hard copy publication and an online publication. It is a magazine that is dedicated to helping parents who are raising children with special needs by offering resources, giving helpful hints on therapies, vacations, food, just about anything that you can think of. This is a free publication and a well written and informative resource to have. They write featured articles on many topics such as learning differences, behavioral issues, personal care and many feel good and inspirational stories as well. The woman who interviewed me was such a sweetheart and a kind and understanding soul. It’s as if she knew me for a very long time. The magazine covers a wide spectrum of disorders. You can find articles on Cerebral Palsy, Down Syndrome, Autism, Chromosome Disorders, Tourette’s Syndrome and Juvenile Diabetes just to name a few. I am not sure which I am more excited about, the fact that my painting is being featured on the cover of such a wonderful magazine, or the fact that Hailey is going to be featured on the cover of a magazine! As you all know, it is this grandmother’s opinion that Hailey is already the most beautiful girl in the world, I think her beautiful blue eyes should be on the cover of every magazine, because she is that beautiful and her contagious smile just happens to light up all of Boston Massachusetts. Our cover is the upcoming FAll issue, coming real soon. Do me a favor, in the interim, while we patiently wait for it to be published, show these great folks some love and support, head on over to their facebook page, and tell them that Janet from Painting for Hailey sent you! Can you guess which painting of Hailey they chose? Which one do you think is worthy of a cover? If you live in the Georgia area, this magazine is easy to find you can pick one up in Savannah, Pooler, Macon, Atlanta and Charleston.

Kudos to Exceptional Family T.V.

-I am a delicate flower...you are the sunshine that helps me grow copyright by Janet Lee Harrold

As many of my loyal readers know, I write occasional content for a site by the name of Exceptional Family T.V. EFTV is an online home destination for exceptional families worldwide. It is one of the best online resources I have found. It is a place where you can find useful information, you can learn first hand from other families who are raising children with special needs, and are living the same life and are on the same unfamiliar journey that we are on. The road of uncertainty and trial and error. We help each other, we cry with each other, we smile with each other and most of all, we learn from each other. That is why when Hailey was not feeling herself last week, I turned to my friends over at EFTV for advice. I mentioned on their facebook fan page that Hailey had been lethargic, she wasn’t eating, and she was downright cranky, not her usual self at all. It began to worry me a bit and I remembered the same thing happening last summer. I wondered if it was just the hot weather getting her down. So I posed the question to the 14,000+ friends who make up our special needs community on EFTV. “Does the heat affect your child with C.P.?” and within hours I had more than 27 people tell me that without a doubt, the extreme temperatures totally affect their children. I have to say that the education that we get from one another has been more informative and satisfying than anyone of Hailey’s team of Specialists. I learned that high temperatures, the combination of heat and fatigue can sometimes bring on seizure activities for kids who have C.P. and others cannot regulate their body temperature and have to wear cooling vests. Some kids just can’t cope in the heat, I learned about the benefits of coconut water for super hydration ( though i’m a bit skeptical about that one). Most parents told me they have learned to take precautionary measures and if the forecast says it is going to be above 72 degrees then they cancel any outside activities and stay in the air conditioning. Well, that would have been nice to know, sure wish the doctors would worn us about this stuff.