A Touch of Scarlett, our journey with a rare bleeding disorder

Each year the anxiety leading up to Scarlett's 504 and IEP plan seems to take over, but this year it was different.  I finally feel like the school understands the situation and is doing everything in their power to keep her safe while providing a social environment she can thrive in. This year Scarlett showed interest in coming to the meeting because she wanted to take part in deciding her restrictions. The look of astonishment on the nurses face as she described her "platelet bleeding disorder" and explained the steps and protocol to take when she gets injured was one I'll never forger. My heart filled with pride the more I heard her go on about her disorder-she was obviously a well educated little girl. Due to some minor head bumps Kindergarten year, followed by her enormous bump in the beginning of last year . . . left Scarlett's 1st grade of school with a lot of restrictions. She wasn't allowed on the playground unaccompanied by me (which I only coul...

This year I can truly say our family embraced the gift of giving. As many people know Scarlett became a wish kid last year and was given the biggest gift of all... To have her one wish come true. . .  to meet the princesses!! Ever since we returned from our trip to Disney World . . . I've made it my personal goal, to start giving back more and to instill that into my children. Scarlett turning her letters into Macys We have been dropping off letters for Macy's Believe campaign for a few years.  But this year we put a lot more effort into it and decided to get the schools involved. I work at a preschool where I was able to collect 30 letters to Santa, and I volunteered in Scarlett's class one day and taught them about Make-A-Wish and Macy's Believe Campaign, where we collected 22 more letters. Through out December Scarlett encouraged anyone she could, to write a letter to Santa, and on the day we turned them into Macy's . . .  she had over 75 letters.  I...