We are back after a hiatus for a few weeks to talk about the challenges we have faced recently with childcare, and how it intersects with our careers. This is not really a new challenge, but newly relevant and resurfaced. Rachel and Brian share their independent and shared perspectives on how they have navigated this reality and how they are looking ahead.

We return to the chronological progression through our experience as Nate's parents and pick up at the point where Nate was moving back into a Special Education classroom for middle school. We share our reasons for the change, as well as how Rachel's career started to become intertwined with disability advocacy.

We wrap by touching on a big rite of passage for Nate that touched everyone involved.

If you have a story to share or just want to send us a message, please send it to brian@nemhouse.com.

There were three topics we wanted to circle back to before we continued our chronological march through our 20 years with Nate: medication, becoming an advocate, and the diagnosis.

Medication is a controversial topic in many households, and was in ours as well. Rachel and Brian share their perspectives on how they came to decisions around making medication a part of Nate's life.

Rachel went through a big journey to become an effective advocate for Nate in the school system. She shares more details on how that happened, how long it took, and some tips for shortening your path to advocacy.

Finally, Rachel and Brian share the way that Nate fell into a diagnosis after they had largely given up on the idea, and how that diagnosis played a large role in all their lives since.

Most people assume having a disabled child means everything will be more challenging. That has not been our experience. There are a number of things that have been delightful that we would have never anticipated. There are also some challenges that were hard to predict. Rachel and I cover those in an episode that takes a little break from our chronological story.

Rachel and Brian walk through their winding path of school decisions for Nate from Developmental Preschool to Special Ed Kindergarten to Gen Ed elementary and back to Special Ed. It's a big decision for parents and can be overwhelming. We share why we did what we did and offer support for parents making these tough choices.

Rachel and Brian share their individual journeys toward accepting and embracing life with Nate as a child with long-term disabilities.

Rachel battles a cold to share her experience getting a questionable diagnosis on their first child that caused a lot of unnecessary trauma, as well as a lack of official diagnosis on their second child, and how the two fed into each other. Brian talks about the fears he faced as a father and a husband.

Rachel and Brian share why they are starting this podcast, how they hope to help parents of kids with a disability, and a bit about their backgrounds.