My Passion To Be Heard

I am often asked to speak at various events relating to diabetes and mainly our experiences as a family of three children with type 1 diabetes.

I will honestly tell you that I don’t have the answers only what we have done to try to help motivate our children, keep them safe and be their advocates. I can honestly tell you that everything we try does not work and we simply move on and try the next thing. Since all of our children are at various ages and stages in life ages 21, 18 and 12 with the youngest being diagnosed at 2 ½ years old, we have I think been running through just about every thing imaginable pertaining to diabetes. I like to share these experiences because we truly are not alone on this adventure.

I recently spoke at an event where a women came up to me afterwards and told me that hearing me speak about harping on one of my sons about his diabetes and what he wasn’t doing that I forgot to look at what he had been doing and when I finally realized what I sounded like to him and corrected my behavior and started to look at the good he was doing I started to see a turn around in him. I think of myself as a pretty positive person and here I was forgetting to concentrate on the positive. Even one small positive thing that someone is doing is so worth praising and can really make a difference. Listening to this mom talk about her own son’s issues and how she felt that all she did was tell him what he wasn’t doing that she forgot about telling him how proud she was about the things he was doing. By the end of the night we were both in tears and knowing that we somehow were able to connect in such a basic way just refueled me and my passion to be heard.

Helping one person to know that they are not alone really does make a difference so if you have an opportunity to be heard don’t be afraid to share your experiences.

Julie mom to Adam (21), Patrick (18) & Nikki Tyler 12 all Type 1 Diabetes

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