My Supports

Many different supports help me through my daily life. I have a husband who helps support me and our daughter financially, emotionally and physically. Both my husband's family and my family combined offer moral support and although they don't live close by they would be available in an emergency situation. We have many friends that help us through our daily lives also, sometimes we need someone to talk to, or to babysit for a short time, or to borrow something, or to give us a ride somewhere. It is nice to have friends to call on for help and also to return the favors to later! Friends and family are the biggest supports in my life.

I teach Early Childhood Education to high school students, and I am the director of the high school's child development center. At work I have a few teachers in my department that are always available for advice and sometimes just for encouragement. When I started this job a couple years ago, co-workers were there to teach me the ropes and make sure that I had everything I needed. They were very helpful and wanted me to succeed. I still couldn't do my job today without the help of my co-workers.  Working with special needs students; I rely on the special education department for information, tools and sometimes extra staff in my classroom. In terms of classroom management, I rely on the administrative staff for support at certain times. The staff at the high school works as a team to help each other whenever we can.

I have known many families over the years that have dealt with the battle against cancer. If I were ever to face that challenge, I would rely even more on friends, family, and co-workers. I would need people at work to take over some of my responsibilities and at home I would need help caring for my family and for myself. I hope that I do not have to face the challenge of a serious illness. If I did I would need help getting to doctor's appointments and treatments. I might need help paying for the high costs of the medical bills also. It is hard to imagine all the ways something like that would impact my life but I just wouldn't be able to handle all the things I currently do. Other people would have to take over some of the responsibilities. I am lucky to have family and friends that I think would be there to help.