The Hope For a Happy Life

It is so simple. All we parents want for our adult children is for them to be happy. We think we know what will make our children happy - career, success, money, home, car, friends, marriage, kids. When we have children with disabilities, we learn to change our goals because our children may not enter the typical success pathway. Or maybe we come to realize that it's not our goal to begin with. Can we let go of our goals for our children, whether disabled or not, and let them be whatever makes them happy? Can we stop feeling guilty about who we thought our children would be and let them just be? All I want for S is that she live a happy life based on her own goals. I went through some grieving when I realized she would not be living the life I had hoped for her. And then I let go.