A Gift for Mom! 🤍
1. Tell me a little about yourself.
Hey Little Fighter is a blog for special needs parents run by two ordinary moms… with a not so ordinary life! Michelle and Carla are moms to two special little kids. Michelle’s son, Caleb, was 10 weeks premature and has spent a large part of his life hospitalized, undergoing procedures and under surgical care in the nation’s top hospitals. Carla’s daughter, Lyla, was born healthy and beautiful. At 15 months old, she was diagnosed with stage III neuroblastoma. Her treatment was intense and culminated in a critical surgery to remove a tumor wrapped around her spine in Mayo Clinic. Our attitude towards life is what we put forth in our blog, a positive mindset in the face of difficulty.
When did you start blogging and why?
Hey Little Fighter came to be in March of this year. Our inspiration for it was based on our need to create a space for parents who need guidance, support and resources through the difficult journey of the hospital life, no matter the diagnosis.
3. What are some of your favorite sites on the ‘net?
Aside from the positive and uplifting articles we read on Her View From Home, we love reading articles on The Mighty, the Thriving blog at Boston Children’s Hospital’s website and Humans of New York.
4. What does a typical day look like for you?
Both us mamas are stay at home working moms. Carla is expecting her second baby and raising a busy, strong willed and beautiful 3-year-old girl. Michelle is home schooling her 5-year-old tubie. We both spend our days dedicated to watching our children grow, running our home (or having it run us) at doctor’s appointments, and our writing. Oh yeah, we talk to each other on the phone. A lot.
5. What advice do you have for someone who wants to blog or share her/his story?
We believe you have something worth saying. If you believe it too, nothing should stop you. Stories we read online have the impact to change our attitude, turn our day around and help us make the best out of not so good situations. So our advice is, share your story in a way that will help others, radiate a positive attitude. Many people will not only learn something, but grow, all thanks to your view on life.
6. What story are you most proud of?
We are most proud of two pieces we wrote that poured from our hearts. The first is an open letter to our children’s surgeon. It says it all.
The second is a piece written for parents going through a seemingly invisible diagnosis with their child. Our struggle is often left unseen to the world, and special needs parents should know, we are here to help support their journey.
7. How can people follow you?
There are only 13 years and 11 months between us. I can’t imagine how hard that must have been—how lonely it must have felt at times. A childhood cut short, replaced with responsibilities that were night and day. Confusion and love, all wrapped into one. Growing up, it felt like I had a big sister beside me. A friend I loved with everything in me. But she wasn’t just a friend. She was my mother. I relied on her for guidance, for reassurance, for someone to look up to. And now I find myself wondering, how could she give me...
Praying for My Son Send a storm to stop him; Let his friends throw him out. May he drop to the deeps, But gently, please, Stubborn though he may be. If it could only take three days, How my mother’s heart would Rejoice in praise. From the hell you allow him, Let him cry to you. Is not Nineveh and mercy Exactly what he knows He needs— A mercy on enemies He fears You will concede? Please let all the shade wither If his is an angry soul; Humble him and help him follow Where you would have his purpose...
Grandmother, I never met you this side of Heaven, but I feel as though I have. Your pictures, scattered throughout my mother’s home, tell your story. Born to a woman who came to this country alone when she was just 16, you would be the youngest of four, with two sisters and a brother. Your short, dark, straight hair clings to your little face, a line of bangs neatly combed high on your forehead. You couldn’t be more than three years old as you sit on a stool at your sister’s First Holy Communion. The black and white photo makes...
I’ve written several times about how divorce has allowed me to find myself again, and how that version is even better than the one I was before I was married. All of that is still true. I am happier than I’ve ever been. More confident and sure of myself. I understand my emotions and how to handle myself when things get tough or scary. I am more grounded and calm than I’ve ever been. Truly, I have come out on top. I’ve received comments about how happy I look, how I’m “living my best life with kids only half the...
I was talking with my dad the other day about an upcoming Disney trip with our kids. I told him all we planned to do while we were there and how excited the kids were. He sat and listened, taking it all in. And then he said something that put a lump in my throat. “I’m so glad you’re able to give your kids the life that I couldn’t.” He went on to say he still carries some guilt–that he wishes he could have done more, taken us on trips, given us experiences he couldn’t. Hearing that broke my heart....
The side of my husband who is hardest on himself usually shows up late at night. The house is quiet, the kids are finally asleep, and the day has done what it always does—taken everything it could from both of us. That’s usually when it comes out. The voice in his head that tells him he’s not doing enough as a father. Not present enough. Not patient enough. Not good enough. He doesn’t say it lightly. He says it like someone confessing a truth he wishes wasn’t true. Like he’s already measured himself against some invisible standard of fatherhood and...
The roles. The expectations. The unspoken, undefined rules. The hurt feelings no one wants to talk about. It could be a scene from an old Abbott and Costello routine: “Who’s on first?” Motherhood is rarely clear-cut. And if you’ve ever tried to navigate life alongside a stepmother—or as one—you know how quickly things can become complicated. Add a stepmother to the mix, and suddenly it’s a relay race where no one’s quite sure who’s holding the baton, or if anyone wants it. This isn’t a story about winners and losers or choosing sides. It isn’t about who is right or...
The year is 2026: we’re inviting thousands of strangers to get ready with us, threatening our own deaths on a lot of different hills and, if you’re a millennial mom, determined to have a ’90s summer. Some top to-dos on the ’90s mom summer checklist? Lots of outside play, limited screens, less hustle, more simplicity. Overall, evoking the “carefree” summers of the 1990s. But did anyone ever ask the real ‘90s moms if summers back then were all we’re cracking them up to be? If my own memory serves me right, my parents talked a whole lot about summers in...
He promised you a lifetime, a family, safety, and security. You carried life and brought it into this world for him. Even still, in the trenches of postpartum, he betrayed you. It was never your fault. This is something I’ve fought to tell myself every single day since the day I discovered my marriage was never meant to last. Because the truth is, betrayal is never about you; it’s about them, and the character flaws deep within they’d rather bury than face. He watched as you fought for your life after delivery while your tiny, premature newborn spent the first...
When my dad turned 80, he—and we, by default—celebrated all year. My sister made a fantastic, larger-than-life sign of him posing in front of his friend’s antique car, with beautiful calligraphy that trumpeted, “Cheers to you, celebrating 80 years of life!” The sign welcomed his closest friends and family into a private room at a steakhouse, where we toasted his 80 years—and the grandkids toasted his steady presence in their lives. The sign moved from the swanky steakhouse to the second-floor banister in my parents’ house. When you walked in, it greeted you—a feel-good conversation starter and a reminder to...
