Hillary Rodriguez: Moving forward after a child's diagnosis

Love this episode? Send me a message here!


Hillary Rodriguez is a pilot wife, working mother of three,
travel lover, serial over- volunteer-er, home baker, book lover,
and disability advocate.

My conversation with Hillary Rodriguiz was close to my heart as
we both have kids with extra needs. Whew! Even as I was listening
to the episode again to do the edits, I got tears in my
eyes.

We both showed up in a big way with our stories and emotions
about the journey of parenting a child with special needs,
hitting on key issues like grief, fear, and building empathy
within ourselves, our kids, and the siblings of our kids with
extra needs.

Overall, it was a beautiful and emotional conversation that I
hope touches your heart and mothering experience, whether your
kids have special needs or not.

Quotable Quotes:

Hillary: "I’ve been fortunate—I’ve never lost a child. The pain,
I don’t think, can compare to that. But you do have a dream. You
spend your whole pregnancy coming up with these dreams. “My
daughter is going to be a doctor and she’s going to be an
astronaut!” And she’s going to be these grandiose things! And
then all of a sudden… “Can she drive?” I don’t know. We’ll see.
We’ll have to just wait and see. Things get a little bit
different and we have to get through that grief. It takes
time."

Hillary: "“I always talk to people and when their children are
newborns, they want to know what to do. My biggest piece of
advice is just to appreciate them, who they are, and love them
just right now because they grow so fast. But getting over that
grief and coming to acceptance is a big thing. Being okay with
what you’re family’s going to look like and the community you’re
going to get and all these gorgeous things that come from it is
big. But that initial period of denial and grief is a lot for
people to overcome. But once you get past it…."

Brittany: "I remember talking to someone once who was going
through a diagnosis, and saying “You have to love your child more
than your grief over what you thought their future was going to
to be.” And I say that as somebody who has loved their grief at
times more than their child. I had to make a choice about whether
or not I was going to grieve over their future or step into that
love.”

Terms and references for this episode:
IEP: Individual Education Plan

"Welcome to Holland" by Emily Pearl Kingsley

You can find Hillary @Hycastillo85 on Instagram
Check out her article on Her View From Home here!


Support the show


Join the FB group here!

Check out the new shop on Buy Me a Coffee and please consider
becoming a $5 supporter of the show (I need 8 per month to cover
the out of pocket expenses of producing the podcast)

I'm so glad you are here! Please share the podcast with a friend
and don't forget to leave a review on Apple Podcasts!