Crawfish Princess: Overcoming Brachial Plexus with Resilience 4lbs of Crawfish at a Time.

Crawfish Princess: Overcoming Brachial Plexus with Resilience 4lbs of Crawfish at a Time.

Niyah Jean hasn’t let having the use of only one hand slow her down – especially when it comes to eating crawfish!

Her left arm and hand have been paralyzed since birth due to a birth injury from a forceps delivery known as obstetric brachial plexus palsy. This condition affects approximately 1.5 out of every 1000 births in the United States. Continue reading Crawfish Princess: Overcoming Brachial Plexus with Resilience 4lbs of Crawfish at a Time.

Adult Child Estrangement and Reconciliation

Adult Child Estrangement and Reconciliation

Before hearing about Partners In Partners in Policy Making or anything relatively close to it, all I knew about advocating for children was my mother’s lioness-like attitude regarding us. She barely had to use her roar to speak up for us. I attempted to find my inner lioness once I became a mother, but it did not come easily. First, I was shy and filled with the guilt of bringing a medically fragile child into this world at such a young age. Second, I was hard on myself and self-conscious because of how others viewed me. I wish I had it in me to speak up for myself at the time, but I did not have the necessary tools to do so. Finally, a life experience would present itself to provoke my inner lioness. Continue reading Adult Child Estrangement and Reconciliation