[blparent] Glad to join

Wed May 18 01:17:13 UTC 2011

Erin, I live in rio Rancho New Mexico and am a stay at home mom.  I am
presently seeking a job as my daughter is already 11 and heading into middle
school next year. I hae been part of this group for a few years now and love
it.  I also feel like each and every one of the people here are related to
me in one way or 		another. 

-----Original Message-----
From: blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Erin Rumer
Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2011 4:28 PM
To: 'NFBnet Blind Parents Mailing List'
Subject: Re: [blparent] Glad to join

Hello blind parents,

Thank you all so much for your warm welcome emails.  I think that I'm going
to make some lasting friendships here and I hope I'll get a chance to meet
some of you at future conventions and other events.  Unfortunately, I don't
have any plans to make it to convention this year, but hopefully I'll be
able to get to one soon.

I currently live in Tucson, AZ where my husband took a job with the VA Blind
Rehab hospital here as an assistive technology instructor.  Before that we
lived in Portland, OR where I worked as an Training Class Specialist for
Guide Dogs for the Blind and my husband worked for the VA there as an O&M
Specialist.  My husband David and I both grew up in IL though and made our
move out west five years into our marriage when David took a job as a
Teacher of the Visually Impaired and O&M Instructor for the schools in
Eugene, OR.  We lived 6 glorious years in Oregon.  We love Oregon
tremendously and hope to make it back that way some day, but for now David
has a great job with wonderful co-workers so we can't complain.  Tucson is
light years away from Portland when it comes to pedestrian friendliness and
accessibility which has made it quite challenging for me, but we're working
through it.  It's going to be Dawson's first hot summer here in Tucson, and
he's already not a fan of the heat so it will be interesting to see what he
thinks of a hundred and fifteen degrees for weeks on end. YIKES!

Dawson and I have started going to an infant play group at a local center
open to the public and he is loving it and already making eyes at the girls.
It was funny because a few moms really were shocked with how I independently
got around with Dawson just pulling his stroller behind me and with how I
could keep track of exactly where he was if I moved away to grab a new toy
for him or something.  A lot of the moms thought for a while that I could
see quite a bit, but now they've gotten used to me and really have gained an
education on how moms who are blind do things just as well as sighted moms,
just sometimes a little modified.  In addition to the play group our church
also does a play date once month which is fun to go to and collaborate with
other moms and every Thursday I go to a breastfeeding support group at the
hospital Dawson was born at here in town which is wonderful.  I love taking
advantage of all the family geared events I possibly can to get to know
others in my area and give Dawson the opportunity to socialize with other
little tikes.  In the fall I'm hoping to start taking Dawson to bilingual
classes for infants that is offered at an international school here in town.
That should be lots of fun and mom will learn a ton right along with baby.
SMILING.

I was working on my Masters in Vision Rehab Therapy through Western Michigan
University, but when Dawson was 3 months old and I found myself getting up
at 3:00 a.m. just to study and watch my classes on-line, I realized that
burning my wick at both ends wasn't going to do me or Dawson any good.  This
time is precious so I put my program on hold and I knew that was the right
decision because the very night I dropped my classes for the term my milk
poured in and here I was worried that I was beginning to dry-up.  What a
miracle and it's amazing what a little less stress can do for the body.

Look forward to chatting more with you all.

Erin
-----Original Message-----
From: blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of jill
Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2011 11:18 AM
To: 'NFBnet Blind Parents Mailing List'
Subject: Re: [blparent] Glad to join

Hi,
Glad to have you on the list.  I am also a stay at home Mom now.  I worked
previously as a rehab teacher and then lastly a service rep with SSA.  I am
40 and have 3 children ; John 13, Lucas 6 and Olivia 10 months.  There is a
lot of interesting and helpful folks on the list.

Jill 

-----Original Message-----
From: blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Erin Rumer
Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2011 12:37 AM
To: blparent at nfbnet.org
Subject: [blparent] Glad to join

Hello blind parents,

My name is Erin and I'm thrilled to find a quality list serv for parents who
are blind.  I have a six month old little boy named Dawson who is the joy of
my husband David and my life.  He is doing so many new things nearly every
day which is wonderful to witness and my guide dog Provo and him are just
the best of buds.  It's really sweet to see exactly how close my guide has
gotten to Dawson and Dawson just giggles with delight whenever he sees the
dog around.

I've been blind since birth with LCA.  I have put my career outside of the
home on hold in order to be a stay at home mom which I feel very blessed to
be able to do.  Our son is truly the sunshine of our lives and after nearly
12 years of marriage I can honestly say that he was worth the wait.

I look forward to corresponding with all of you on a variety of subjects and
it's great to know that I now have others I can throw questions out to when
needed since I don't have that many blind friends who are also parents.

Warmly,

Erin

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