Reimagining Family Life with Disability online course now available
3 ways for you and your friends to envision and walk towards a good future for your family
After our daughter Penny was born and diagnosed1 with Down syndrome, I felt as though I could no longer imagine our future as a family. The messages I had heard about Down syndrome were negative and outdated. I didn’t have any idea how to think about who she would become or who we would become as a family.
Now, 18 years later, I can testify to the goodness of our family life. Not the perfection of it! But the goodness of three kids who bicker with each other and get jealous and annoyed, who bake cookies and play Clue and do the dishes together, who give and receive to each other and to us. And while there are plenty of factors that have contributed to that goodness, a lot of it comes down to having a renewed imagination for family life.
Over the years, we have learned to identify the negative messages our culture tells us about people with disabilities, and we have learned to replace those messages with a different understanding. Shifting our mindset around disability has helped us to believe in possibilities for our family’s future.
Last fall, I had a kind of epiphany.
It really did feel like a lightbulb moment, when I realized that these 18 years of parenting has given me insight that I longed to pass along to other parents like me.
Reimagining Family Life with Disability Workshop
And so I developed a workshop called Reimagining Family Life with Disability, which I was able to teach online for the first time in May.
Now, that same course is available in three different formats, and I would love for you to take it yourself or tell a friend about this opportunity.
I’ve come to believe not only that life can be good for families affected by disability, but also that our whole society will be better if we learn how to reimagine family life and community life so that people with disabilities belong and matter.
I hope you will join me as we reimagine family life with disability. Here’s the official information about this course:
Workshop Details:
Do you ever feel alone as a parent of a child with a disability? Do you worry that you’re not doing enough for your family? Do you wonder whether a good future is possible? This four-session workshop offers families affected by disability a way to envision and work toward a good future.
Choose the format that works for you!
Workshop (live, virtual)
NEW cohort begins in September
Online Course (self-paced)
Go through the material at a time and pace convenient for you.
Video Teaching (local groups)
5 or more participants
Facilitate a group in your community!
“This workshop has been so transformational for me and my family. I wish that we had encountered this information so much earlier in our journey with disability. It is truly reshaping how I think about disability and more importantly, how I relate to and love my child.”
-Workshop Participant
Previous participants say this workshop has given them:
✔️a new mindset toward disability
✔️a larger network of support and care
✔️a plan for taking manageable steps toward a good future
“I am so delighted to be participating in your workshop. I feel like I spend a lot of time worrying about whether or not I am doing enough for my daughter and feeling inadequate in the face of her needs. Somehow, widening the lens to consider the underpinnings of how I have come to perceive disability felt expansive.”
-Workshop Participant
Have questions? I’d love to hear from you! Reply to the email or leave a comment.
And please share this workshop with a friend and in your online community.
Blessings,
Amy Julia
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EVENTS
July 21-26:
Pastor for Volunteers at Hope Heals Camp2
A Good and Perfect Gift: Faith, Expectations, and a Little Girl Named Penny. My spiritual memoir where I write about how I came to understand every human life is a gift.
Last week I wrote all about why I look forward to camp every year.