I grew up the last of five children in a typical Irish Catholic family that turned out to be not-so-typical. Born and raised in Connecticut, my father was an actuary and my mother was a homemaker.
I spent my early 20′s simultaneously traveling along several different paths. While pursuing music business and singing in New York, I worked for Time Warner/Sony Sound Exchange on Long Island.
In 1996, I returned to Connecticut and tried on a few new hats. While working at The Hartford Courant newspaper in advertising and finance, I took on a side gig as a security supervisor for several venues in the Hartford/New Haven area. In 2000, I chose to leave the entertainment and business world behind and move on to service in public safety.
The Sergeant Major (SGM) and I met in 2001. I soon went back to college focused in Health Sciences and joined Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society. I continued to attend school part-time while being a full-time mother to my teenage stepdaughter – later having The Boy in 2003 and RM in 2006.
I am an aunt to seven beautiful children and was fortunate to spend quite a lot of time with them as babies. They now range in ages from ten to twenty – I am always amazed at how fast the time flies. I have one nephew on the spectrum who is doing fabulously after intensive early intervention. It was because of my nephew that SGM and I chose to teach our son sign language when he was an infant, in order for all of us to be able to communicate with my nephew as he was learning ASL in school. It would prove quite handy when RM was born with 4q Deletion.
In 2010, after RM’s autism diagnosis, I became active in advocacy efforts to increase awareness and accessibility to autism therapies for military families. As a volunteer advocate, I have met with Congressional legislators and shared our family’s story as well as the stories of many other military families who serve our country while also caring for their dependents with autism.
In spring 2011, I had the honor of writing a letter to President Obama as part of the Light The White House Blue Campaign in efforts to spread awareness and highlight the unique struggles autism presents to military families.
2012 saw the passage of the first federal legislation to make Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) available to all military dependents, active duty or retired, without a dollar cap on care.
My husband and I make our home in Connecticut. The SGM is Active Duty Army Guard Reserve (AGR) and commutes daily to one of the many armories located throughout the state when he is not otherwise deployed. The Boy is an avid Legomaniac and Discovery Channel addict, and RM – now outplaced to an amazing autism school – loves all things Muppets and Pixar and is thriving. I don’t have a whole lot of free time, but I do love kayaking and golf – I am a true tomboy at heart. I drive a pickup truck and I love Top Gear (the British version).
I continue to advocate for military families living with autism. Not only does the science of autism fascinate me, but I am increasingly amazed by the gifts of autism - inspirational folks I meet along this journey. I adamantly believe that the autism community can and MUST come together and respectfully share experiences, advocate for each other and push for unity.
Additionally, this life has afforded me a rapidly developing wine palate.
[Recently diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome, so this page will be under construction soon!]
Cheers!
The Bloggess
June 11th, 2011 at 4:21 pm
Nice getting to know u better
June 12th, 2011 at 12:54 pm
I love this blog and want to promote it as a supportive resource to my families. Can I put you on my BlogRoll? I don’t know how to do it but believe that your blog would be so helpful to others! My blog is: http://livingabovedisorder.org/blog/ and is called Living Above Daily.
Frederica
Founder of Living Above Disorder
http://www.livingabovedisorder.org
June 12th, 2011 at 1:14 pm
Welcome! Absolutely, I would be honored. You should be able to link this: http://stimcity.wordpress.com into your blogroll via your wordpress ‘dashboard’. I began to read your blog as well and it was fabulous. Very honest. And I do appreciate honesty!!
July 13th, 2011 at 3:05 am
i absolutely LOVE the nekkie picture of your boy watching his daddy. it’s too priceless!! lila LOVES ‘cars’ too!! we swear we can recite mater’s tall tales word for word when we’re watching it!!! hahahaha. hope everything is going as good as it can be with RM!
July 13th, 2011 at 8:08 am
It’s all about Lightning McQueen and Mater around here, too, Jennie! ;0)
December 6th, 2011 at 6:03 am
[...] see, my friend, Rachel has something to say. And it’s important – really important – that we hear it. [...]
January 26th, 2012 at 7:49 pm
Hello Rachel,
Well, you made my night. What a great blog! My husband is an Infantry Officer in the CAV and just got back from Iraq. We have a son with autism, who is 5 years old. I read the letter your husband sent to the Special Education Director. Ha!! My husband and I loved it!!! My husband is very involved in our son’s care and it’s great to hear about other Dads who fight for their kids alongside their wives. What great support to have!!
Karen Driscoll is very popular!! I met her in D.C. to do some work with her on fighting for our kids with autism. She’s one awesome lady. I also noticed your link for ACT Today for MIlitary Familes. We are a big supporter of ACT today. Awesome organization. We will be traveling to California again to run in their 5/10K in April. For the past few years, I have been a columnist with EP magazine and do a little bit of writing. It’s great therapy and it’s nice to spread the word about ways to help our kids. It’s great see blogs like yours that share your experience.
I just wanted to give you a shout out from one Army Infantry wife to another. You go girl!!! Keep doing what your doing!! You rock. :) Shelly Huhtanen
April 13th, 2012 at 3:47 pm
Hi, Rachel! I just wanted to stop by to say thanks for all that you do!!!! I know you are super busy but I nominated you for the Versatile Blogger Award, anyway! ;-)
http://chameleoninthespectrum.wordpress.com/2012/04/13/versatile-blogger-award-who-me/
March 7th, 2013 at 9:40 pm
Hi Rachel, I’m Lily and I’ve been reading some of your posts. I just started blogging a few months ago about autism creativity and military life. We have soon to be 4 year old twins, and a six and a half year old son that lives with autism. My husband Alex also blogs about autism (Capt Dad) here on AMFAS too. It’s nice to meet you!!