With so many new people joining us, I thought this was a good time for an introduction to our cast of characters and give some background as to what this page is about.

Logan is a video I made about how we have emerged from our cocoon.

I’m Ally, aka Al aka Mom aka HoneyNugget. I am Logan’s biological mother, and my husband Seth is his dad. Grampy is a huge part of Logan’s life, and is with us daily. Abby aka Abbygirl is Logan’s older sister, who he loves to the moon and back and Kevin aka Schlipps is Abby’s husband who is Logan’s idol.

Abby and Kevin moved to FL 2 yrs ago to live on an Airforce base as Kevin serves our country and Abby goes to nursing school. She returned to live with us last fall while Kevin was deployed to Afghanistan, and then again in Spring to escort Logan to his Junior Prom- where the kids crowned him Prom Prince!

Because money has little value to Logan, when people started asking what they can give Logan for his birthday in October, we decided to ask people to consider making a donation to our gofundme account which will go to our local police dog program. At the end of the gofundme campaign Logan will go present the program with a check in honor of his birthday. All he really wants is to see his AbbyGirl and Schlipps, so I have just booked them a flight home to surprise Logan on his birthday – I can’t wait. I hear every single day “I miss her Abby. I miss him Schlipps.”

Another thing about our page is something our “Logan Army” has dubbed “Loganese” which is Logan’s unique way of speaking. I type it how he says it, so I hope you can catch on quickly!

We also sew little zombie ragdolls that have become “Slombies” (even made it to Urban Dictionary!) and any money we EARN goes into a trust for Logan.

Logan has had a long journey to where he is today. Born at a normal weight, Logan failed to thrive. He had surgery to correct Pyloric Stenosis at 8 wks, but more problems were to follow. He has been tested extensively and followed closely by some of the best doctors in the US at Boston Children’s Hospital but remains undiagnosed. I won’t go into his whole medical/developmental history besides saying we searched HARD for a long, long time and Logan endured many hours of uncomfortable, sometimes painful testing. I just wished for peace and happiness for my child, and it was so hard to watch him struggle, with test after test coming back with no answers. I was worrying, we were wasting so much time.

When we backed off of the aggressive testing, Logan relaxed and developed the happy attitude he has now. It was the best thing we could have done for him, and although we still don’t have answers, he is living a happy, well adjusted life. Genetics has progressed since our last round of testing, and it’s likely we will try again at some point, but for now Logan is healthy and thriving, adding skills every day. We still visit Children’s Hospital for things, like a recent MRI, but we limit testing now.

He’s a typical teen in many ways, and we never know what he might say. The thing about having a language delay is we aren’t sure where his development is at because there is no way to accurately test him for this. Some days he says things that totally floor me, and they are usually funny. He is extremely sweet and loving, and a joy to have around.

We’ve been very lucky to be able to share our story and hear from many other parents who are encouraged and feel supported by it. I feel we are giving hope to many families with unsure futures, which can be scary.

When you can’t see the road ahead of you, or it veers off to the left suddenly, it can be terrifying. All you can do is hold onto your child and keep trudging along. Some days are awesome, some days suck, its just like any other life on the planet, just exaggerated sometimes.

The hand you are dealt is the hand you are dealt. How you play your hand is 100% your choice. If you play your cards to the best of your ability, and find the ray of sunshine in each day, it can be a wonderful life. Don’t dwell on everything you or your child are not doing, focus on the things you are doing and finding joy in and do a lot of those things!

Logan is proof that if you try hard, have lots of love and believe in yourself, you can do anything you set your mind to. That may be heading to Hollywood to be an actress, or it may be taking 2 steps unsupported. Your hopes, dreams and goals are there- you just have to reach for them and never stop moving forward, no matter how slowly.

I like to refer to life with a special needs child as living on ‘the goat path’. We are side by side with that freeway, watching the other kids progressing at what seems like lightening speed while we watch our kids move along at their own pace. I have learned that I like this pace, and I might even get some goats.