[blindkid] alternative parenting guide

[holly miller]

Hi Sherry!
Our younger son is adopted from China & has Albinism.  I'm always thrilled
to hear about more kids finding families!
While no blind parent should have to jump through hoops to be allowed to
parent, potential adoptive parents have a lot of hoop jumping to do, just
the nature of the beast.  Even if you know what to do on your own, showing
that you have taken the time to seek out resources, that you have a plan and
have sources of support and advice to turn to will make for a good home
study :smile

You will do fine with some old fashioned common sense but you are right, the
social workers and the paperwork pushers like to have reassurances.  We had
to provide specific examples of how we would handle Hank being blind and
what resources we had available, both medical and educational.  This is
something they ask of all prospective parents (rightly so!)

In my opinion, things a social worker will like to hear is that you are a
NFB and/or POBC member and you have befriended other blind parents.  If you
don't typically go to chapter meetings, try to get to some in the near
future so you can say you attend.  If you are on close terms with another
blind parent, use them as one of your references (assuming you know each
other well enough for that)   Or perhaps see if another blind parent is
willing to write a letter stating you are welcome to call on them for
mentoring and advice.  Belonging to online groups like this can be phrased
as being a member of a blind-parent and parent of blind children support
groups.  If there aren't books out there specifically targeting blind
parents, be able to reference the books on educating blind children like
Carol's "Making it Work" & Joe Cutter's O&M book.

Think about it like writing a resume.  You never want to lie but you
certainly want to project the best image of yourself as possible.

Best of luck!
Holly
aka Hank's mom



On Wed, Jul 21, 2010 at 12:07 AM, Sherry DeFrancesco <
sdefrancesco at optonline.net> wrote:

> Hi Steve and Laurie,
>
> Thank you. We too feel confident in our ability to parent. I enjoyed
> hearing about your family. Best to the both of you with your upcoming bundle
> of joy!
>
> Thanks for your good wishes.
> Sherry
>
>