The Movement of Imperfection

Last Friday night, I planned a date night for my husband and me. The last time that Corey & I had date night was................hum..........well, it's been so long that I can't even remember when it was! Needless to say, it was long overdue.

After my mom picked up Ethan for their "date", Corey & I headed off to a neighboring town. We were attending a dinner & presentation for parents of special needs children. Here is the flyer for the event......

For more information about the Sisters of Imperfection, click here.

It was such a wonderful night. When we walked into the conference room, there were vendors set up.....free massages, a health information table with free healing tea samples, Thirty-One, and the authors table of stuff for sale. Our dinner was SO good! I definitely went over my calories on this one! Salad (with cranberries! That always freaked me about before, but it was really good!), grilled chicken with HUGE cheese & spinach filled ravioli, sauteed green beans, and the best chocolate pie EVER MADE!

After dinner, we heard from Gina & Patty, the authors as well as mothers of kiddos with special needs. They were sharing their stories about their kid's diagnosis, their frustrations, their victories, their lessons learned.....it was great. Regardless of the differences in diagnosis, it simply amazes me how I can quickly connect to other parents of children with special needs. We are all on a similar path, and it was really nice to be able to connect with these speakers as well as the other parents at our table. We laughed a lot, cried a little, and celebrated our kids & how blessed we are to be their parents. It was great!

The concept of the Movement of Imperfection: "Today, more than ever, our society is obsessed with achievement and perfection. This is especially true when it comes to our children. It seems you can’t go anywhere without hearing about how someone’s child scored the winning goal or reading a bumper sticker that says, "My honor student loves me." 
 
So what’s a parent of a child who's not a star athlete or Rhodes scholar to do?
 
You can join The Movement of Imperfection. This long-overdue movement invites parents of "non-perfect" kids to come out of their messy closets and talk about the accomplishments of their children. With bumper magnets like "My Bipolar Kid Loves Me AND Hates Me," we're wearing our badges of imperfection and telling the world with humor and grace, "We're not always O.K., but that's O.K." I love this idea so much....whether you have kids with special needs or not, and have officially joined the Movement of Imperfection. If you would like to know more about this or want to join the movement, visit their website www.shutupabout.com or find them on facebook here.

Here we are listening to the Sisters of Imperfection. I have the teal scarf on in the back, and my husband is sitting in front of me.

Introducing "The Movement of Imperfection"

I know I said I was backing off on reading about autism, but this book is full of laughs....so I had to buy it! Here Patty is signing my book.

After dinner, Corey surprised me with an overnight stay in the hotel. It was a great rare opportunity for us to talk & connect. We even had breakfast just the two of us! When we got back to get Ethan, he had had a GREAT time with my mom.....Grandma is WAY more fun than Mom & Dad! It was a great date night for everyone!!!!!