Kate and Mandy talk to extraordinary Erin - mum to peashoot Sarah who she adopted at eight years of age, twenty years ago, when Erin was only nineteen years old herself.

Erin shares the remarkable story of how she became a Pea mum unexpectedly to Sarah, who has Rett Syndrome. Erin had known and loved Sarah since she was a baby, and took over her care in a heartbeat when her birth mother relinquished care directly to her.

Erin faced numerous practical and social challenges when taking on her care, such as needing to give up work, experiencing homelessness and losing many of her friends. She talks about being thrown right in the deep end of Pea parenting and learning on the job about dealing with specialists, feeding challenges, schooling and post-schooling options while often facing a level of disrespect and dismissal from professionals for being so young and inexperienced. She’s fortunately had a pretty smooth and positive experience of the NDIS though, and currently has 3-4 support workers currently providing Sarah with care.  

Erin talks about her ongoing journey towards reaching her lifelong goal of being a special education teacher – a job she’s wanted to do ever since she was fifteen years old. She also shares the nerve-wracking story of packing up and taking Sarah off for a caravanning trip around Australia for twelve months - and finding herself a long way from home in Busselton, WA just when COVID-19 hit Australia!  She also talks about the love, support, family and community she’s been fortunate to find through a great local church.

Erin also shares some very good advice - find the rainbow in every day, no matter what.

Plus:

·     Buy our book The Invisible Life Of Us to keep it on the bookshelves so all the other Peas can find it!

·     Get a signed copy and deck yourself out in some excellent Too Peas merch here!

·     Listen to our Spotify playlist – Too Peas: Songs Our Guest Peas Love

·     Melbourne forecast for Thursday March 10 – Partly cloudy, 21 degrees

·      Join our Facebook Hangout

·      Find us on YouTube

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Website: www.toopeasinapodcast.com.au

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