Ryan David Monaghan was born on August 12, 2008, just before midnight via a last minute, borderline emergency c-section. All signs pointed to a healthy baby boy initially. Around 9 months though he wasn’t hitting his milestones. When referred to CHOA for an evaluation, we couldn’t get a straight answer regarding cost and were told he just probably needed more tummy time, etc. Thankfully a teacher at his daycare introduced us to Babies Can’t Wait and that has been a Godsend for Ryan and us. He started therapy, got all sorts of testing and years later was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy. At age 3 he started having seizures, too. That is the scariest thing to see your child convulse and not be able to do anything. After some trial and error with doctors and medications, we finally found a wonderful neurologist and Ryan has been stable on meds for many years now thankfully. When Ryan was 3, his father and I split up unfortunately. That was rough, but now we are good friends and co-parent as best we can. But essentially, I am a single mom, caring for Ryan without child support or Social Security income, so it has been a struggle through the years financially. I am part German (my mom was born and raised in Berlin) and thus am stubborn and am working to make our lives the best they can be, little by little.
Ryan is now 14 years old and a freshman in high school. It just blows my mind that my sweet little boy now is taller and stronger than me. A fact that just recently made itself blatantly apparent when due to wrecks on the route to school we were late to school. Being late, no one was outside waiting, and Ryan’s routine was thrown off (Ryan is thought to be a bit on the spectrum as well, we cannot effectively test as he is nonverbal). I tried to walk him across the bus lanes to the sidewalk then up to the front doors to the school, but when we reached the sidewalk, he kind of freaked out or just plain decided he wanted to go no further. He turned around and headed back to the car. It was quite the struggle trying to redirect him up to the doors. I got him there 3 times, but by the time they buzzed the door open he would turn around again. Thankfully the last time I got him to sit on the bench nearby and was able to ask for help when the door was buzzed open. That incident shook me a bit as I am older (I was 40 when Ryan was born) and am out of shape. It scared me, making me wonder how can I control him on my own should he decide not to do something I need him to do in the future?
What would be helpful at our house though would be a fenced in yard so I could take him outside where he loves to be and me not having to worry if I could manage to get him back inside.
Gift: Financial assistance for fenced in yard
Location: Jackson County
Given: March 2024
Watch as Ryan discovers his new play area! Warning: tissues may be needed.