Partners in Policymaking

 I had the opportunity this year to spend 9 months in the Partners in Policymaking Program through the Virginia Board for People with Disabilities.  It was 9 of the best weekends I have ever had.

 One weekend each month, I traveled up to Richmond and spent Friday and Saturday working alongside other advocates and self-advocates.  We heard from people who have changed the lives of people with disabilities.  We listened to lectures from those who had learned what would and would not work.  We gave testimony before the General Assembly.  We each completed a final project (mine was teaching a class to residents at the local medical school on dealing with children with special needs). 

The final weekend involved celebration.

It was emotional.  I was not prepared for what this journey entailed, nor was I ready to see it end.

As we had our graduation ceremony, I barely held it together.

At one point, I got a giggle when the tears escaped and the young man sitting next to me with autism wasn't quite sure how to respond to such emotion.  Whoever sat the pregnant lady next to the man with autism...good thinking.  ;) 

 Ari Ne'eman, one of the founders of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, was our final speaker.

He spoke about the advances in the disability rights movement.

As he started in 1970, I was mentally transported back to my first weekend in Richmond when we learned about where this journey started, and my shock at learning that people with disabilities have only had "rights" in the past few years.  Ari asserted that people are given rights because they were once violated, and someone stood up to say "no more."  He challenged us to continue to be those people.

While I found myself battling emotion, nodding, and dreading the end of this chapter, Brooklyn much preferred to spend the graduation ceremony... in the floor.

Until she saw me being "pinned", at which time she wanted to run up to the front of the ceremony and give out hugs.  Luckily, they were well-received.

I am so thankful for the support of so many on this journey.

It was not at all what I expected.  I expected to learn about how to be a better advocate right now.

I didn't expect for my heart to be stirred at the injustices of the past.  I didn't expect to meet with influential leaders in the disability world and get to share my heart.  I didn't expect to mourn the loss of a classmate whose fragile body succumbed to sickness.  I didn't expect to make such dear friends.  

Perhaps the most unexpected thing though, showing my ignorance, was this.

I did not expect to be so inspired by people with disabilities. 

We have spent so much time in therapy meeting goals and making Brooklyn's talk, walk, etc, more normal.

I didn't expect to really like the abnormal.

I think I learned the most from the self-advocates.  

People who couldn't walk, write, or talk very well...who had Masters Degrees, good jobs, and families of their own.

People who assured me that being abnormal... is okay.  In fact, its pretty awesome.

If you have a child with a disability, or if you have a disability yourself...

You should consider applying to become a Partner in Policymaking.

It just might change your life.

I should know... it changed mine.