Amanda Heon’s Blog

About

Welcome to Extraordinary Ordinary.

Life doesn’t always look the way we imagined it would.

Our days are filled with the same things that fill most family homes—morning chaos, school drop-offs, snacks, laundry, bedtime battles, laughter, messes, cuddles, and all the little moments in between.

But our family’s ordinary also includes something extraordinary: raising a child with a severe disability.

This blog is a place to share the real, unfiltered, beautifully messy journey of our family. The victories that deserve to be celebrated. The challenges that can feel impossible. The moments that make us laugh until we cry, and the moments that leave us exhausted, overwhelmed, or wondering what comes next.

There will be stories about disability, parenting, advocacy, siblings, appointments, milestones, setbacks, adaptations, and the million little things that happen behind the scenes of raising a child with significant needs.

But more than anything, Extraordinary Ordinary is about seeing the person before the disability and finding the extraordinary in the everyday.

I’m not here because I have all the answers. I’m here because I’m living it.

And maybe by sharing our story—the good, the hard, the ridiculous, and everything in between—someone else will feel a little less alone.

This is our ordinary.

And somehow, it’s extraordinary.

From the blog

About the author

Hi, I’m Amanda.

I’m a mom, a teacher, a foster mom, an advocate, and—most days—a woman just trying to keep all the plates spinning without dropping too many of them.

I’m a biological mom of four and a foster mom to two siblings. I’ve spent more than 20 years working in early childhood education, so children, development, behavior, and the beautifully unpredictable world of parenting have always been a huge part of my life.

But becoming a parent to a child with significant disabilities has given me a perspective I never could have learned from a textbook, a training, or a classroom.

It has taught me about advocacy in ways I never expected. About celebrating the milestones that other people might take for granted. About grieving the things I thought parenthood would look like while simultaneously falling completely in love with the life we actually have.

And it has taught me that sometimes the biggest accomplishments are the tiniest things.

I started Extraordinary Ordinary because I wanted a place to tell the truth about what this life looks like—not just the inspirational moments, but the frustrating ones, the funny ones, the exhausting ones, and the moments that make me stop and think, How did this become our normal?

There is beauty here.

There is chaos here.

There is a whole lot of love here.

And there is definitely some “What the hell are we doing?” here, too. 😂

I don’t consider myself an expert. I’m simply a mom living this life in real time, learning as I go, advocating fiercely for my children, and trying to find the extraordinary tucked inside our very ordinary days.

So, welcome to our story.

I’m glad you’re here.

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