Orange Socks Stories
Changing Minds and Inspiring Life
Employment and People With Disabilities
Even though the country has a record low employment rate of 2-3 percent, people with disabilities have an unemployment rate of 65 percent. Why is this? In this Podcast episode Gerald talks about with proper training, coaching, and job matching, people with...
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Jessica and Jonathan: Growth Hormone Deficiency
Jessica and Johnathan were shocked and relieved to receive a diagnosis for their son Trenton. Jessica struggled for years to find a doctor who would help her. Her journey in advocacy led her to start a nonprofit organization called Collaborative Corner for Exceptional Children. A company dedicated to helping parents find resources and become advocates for their children with disabilities.
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Maria Update: From A Fatal Diagnosis to Thriving
All Maria wanted was to be able to get the chance to tell Serenity how much she was loved. She said, “I just prayed and I asked God if he could just give me fifteen minutes to love her. To tell her how much I loved her.
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Sock Talk- NIPT
In this episode Dr. Gerald Nebeker talks about the NIPT- Noninvasive prenatal testing, and how the results are often misinterpreted. What is NIPT? NIPT stands for noninvasive prenatal testing. Doctors often use NIPT to screen for genetic...
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The Trip Of A Lifetime: Buddy
Orange Socks is an initiative of RISE Inc. RISE supports people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Recently we had the opportunity is bring one of our clients, Buddy, on the trip of a lifetime. Buddy has an adventurous spirit and during his growing up...
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First Annual Orange Socks Day reaches Tens of Thousands
November 13th was the first of many Orange Socks days to come. Soon thousands and possibly millions will wear Orange Socks a symbol of inclusion for people with disabilities, and these families won’t feel alone anymore.
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Ways to Help Create an Orange Socks Movement
We need you to start this movement. To show individuals with special needs they are our equals. We do this by rallying around them until more people include them and lift them in ways that are helpful. Not with pity, but with love.
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Janalen and Rocky: Prader-Willis Syndrome and Cystic Fibrosis
Rocky admits that at first he had worries and concerns about raising a child with special needs, but these concerns quickly dissolved. He tells us “The joy that comes when you sacrifice for other people and other things…It helps you to focus on the things that really matter in this life and to take joy in the simple things that we often take for granted.”
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Stacy and Terry: Cri Du Chat syndrome
Stacy said that her daughters have been a blessing from the beginning but that she had to adjust her thinking to a different path than what she had expected. Now they are just “Sydney and Logan. Stacy tells us, “They are actually easier to raise than my other two daughters who are non-delayed.” Despite the challenges they know it is worth it. “Everyone has problems, you just have to adjust…They are worth it. I wouldn’t give up anything. I love coming home…,” said Terry. He loves that his twin daughters still live at home and he gets about 20 hugs a day from them.
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Cathy and Brian: Down Syndrome
Cathy McMorris Rodgers and her husband Brian Rodgers found out their son Cole had Down syndrome at his birth. “It was tough. The doctors laid out a lot of things and it was very difficult. The fear of the unknown is what is overwhelming in that moment. Go talk to other people, don’t make an isolated decision. Educate yourself, I remember when we go the news about Cole, that so much of it was focused on the negative. It was focused on what health issues he may have or other challenges. Rather than really being told what the potential was.”
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Jessica and Chewy: Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
Jessica is a single mom and the parent of two boys, Britton and Chewy. Britton was born at 28 weeks gestation weighing only two pounds and 14 ounces. He is 13 years old now and has had many health challenges, including a stroke and brain bleed which has resulted in Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).
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Resource: Special needs parenting when your partner is abusive
For this Good In Our Community feature, we're featuring Betrayal Trauma Recovery. This is a great resource for anyone that is parenting a child with special needs, that has a parter who is abusive. Here is a blog written by their founder, Anne Blythe: We all know...
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