I'm on the news!

Each day during the "Week of Miracles," 13 WHAM News profiles a 2016 Golisano Children's Hospital Miracle Kid. Earlier this summer, I had the opportunity to talk with Norma Holland about my work with Fauna and her son Daniel. Their story aired on Wednesday, September 14: 

You can read more about the story here. I also previously wrote about my time with Fauna and Daniel in the BIFF clinic at URMC in my blog and on the website. The work Fauna and I did together is quite literally why I do what I do for a living. I would not be who I am if it were not for the amazing opportunities I have to work with families like them everyday.

The Golisano Children’s Hospital’s Celebration of Miracles

On Friday, May 20 – as I prepared to launch this website and blog – I had the honor of attending the Golisano Children’s Hospital’s Celebration of Miracles Annual Luncheon at the Riverside Convention Center as guests of Daniel Deyo’s Family. Each year, five patients from the children’s hospital are honored for their “journey to health.” Daniel is a 2016 Miracle Kid.

I met Fauna Deyo in January of 2015 as part of the Behavior Intervention for Families at Kirch. We met on Fridays at 8:30am for 12 weeks and covered a topic each week to help improve Daniel's behavior in the home and in the community. The program involved work during our session and homework between sessions, and Fauna consistently applied the skills we covered and recorded detailed notes for us to discuss at our next meeting. Each week we built on what was covered during the previous week to facilitate greater inclusion for Daniel.

It was a real joy to meet with Fauna each week and to learn of Daniel's progress as part of our work together. Fauna and Daniel’s accomplishments were recognized by Golisano Children's Hospital, and I feel very blessed to be able to witness and share in this honor with them.