In this episode, I share my personal story about our family's experience in how we are organizing and planning in caring for our sister with special needs. Many times there are unexpected life events and we are not prepared. When my parents passed away three years ago, within six months of each other, this was a significant unexpected life event. My parents did many things "Right" but I wish we were more prepared to care for my sister. My thinking started to change dramatically about what we are doing in special education to prepare parents and sharing my story was an essential step. I was fortunate to know where to seek the resources I needed to get things done for my sister, but it was still incredibly overwhelming and stressful for many years and it didn't need to be this way.

These are difficult family conversations, but they need to happen. My mission is to prepare parents and siblings so they are more prepared in the future and to implore them to start planning now! If we fail to plan now, we are making it significantly more stressful for guardians and caretakers when it is their time to take on the responsibility.

This is a two-part series. I will share many more real life stories of how we managed, planned and learned from our mistakes. In many ways, this can brings families closer together, especially the siblings.