A Day in the Life of the Family with Six Blind Kids

Well I'm gonna go in and wake Obed up. You never know what you're gonna find in there. they're all bed is 13 and he's the cutest little guy you ever met it's minty fresh it's minty fresh she like dress him we feed him we bathe him everything it's got a lot going on but he's a very happy boy for you know just kind of takes everything he's very chill fix everything is dry I'm good to go there come on everybody I'm gonna wake my sister in hell go morning okay who kicked their roommates and Abby although Abby can do most things herself she does need a lot of prompting and you know encouragement or every step of the way first I put light on my brother David taught me how to tie shoes and it's really easy now hi I'm David and I'm the son who's away at college what's it like to be at college um it's pretty fun she counts on me to do it and I've been doing it for a while now who helps you in the morning um hey Anna plus I love her and she's my roommate mornings could be crazy at our house because we're trying to get ready for school and work Bethany is 19 years old and she's from Thailand and originally I get dressed independently and brush my teeth and comb my hair now we're gonna go get Jessie maile that's a good sign I see a smile on her face are you in there go yes II just turned 18 I don't have favorites but she's my baby I have to basically do everything for her also I have to get her dressed she she isn't eating this order so she's capable of evil that she doesn't really like to eat and somebody sits down and watches this video of a day in your family's life what's the most important thing for them to keep in mind this is somewhat of a disability but at the same time just look at us as a normal family and look at all the things we do and just you know kind of realize that we do the same things just a little differently you know hot coffee coming through hot tub hot tub they kind of announce where they are and what they're doing to each other partly it's sounding it sounds polite when they're asking you know that hey I'm gonna go get napkins and you know you can sit here or whatever but I think a lot of it is how they let everyone else in the house know where they are anything don't touch don't move on muscles it's hot it's hot three two one bingo delicious we have the same kind of coffee cups and the coffee cups are in the same place and the same dishes are stacked up in the same cabinet all the time they know everything about the house you know you know every room and where the TVs are and where the you know where everything that they need I mean just like anybody anybody would everything needs to be where it belongs so that the kids can find it easily what they need do you enjoy breakfast together in the morning yes of course yeah it's very relaxing we make each other laugh all the time don't you're on camera okay he makes me laugh so hard I start now my eyes start watering we all wish we could be as young as Hannah she's she's 24 she acts younger a lot younger um she has a spirit and a spunk in her and an energy and a zest for life that you know it's it's it's like a teenager and a preteen or like preteen I know I'm getting carried away but Tom yes 45 and time bus Tom this is your backpacks okay all right dish came make sure you get the right one oh I'm quite funny yes that is okay door all right let's go okay all right in the morning in morning are you excited or do you want to go back to bed Oh Shadid what are you doing waiting there wait here boy oh I hear so after everybody gets up and eats they go off to school and work hope it isn't a small self-contained class with other students who have different disabilities are you ready obeyed what season is it is it summer or is it winter yeah good job you found Richard my name it was the Robeson and I'm a bad teacher you have to work with yelling according to disability of what do you have to work with we can't water from this ok you understand what's going on in the classroom and he's he's a very smart kid flammable our fire distinguisher what did you talk about right now very good you spoke about fire extinguisher good job difficult someone's blind they can't talk that's destined that's not that's not saying that they are stupid they done no they are very intelligent you just have to know how to deal with it communicate Jesse's favorite class is music therapy and she looks forward to it every single time hi my name is Julia Sullivan I am the board certified music therapist working with Jesse today what is music therapy music therapy is the use of music to work on non music goals so music activities you might see in music therapy can be working on different things with communication or motor happy Jessie your turn to the guitar so reach reach good I have seen Jessie progressed quite a bit and I know that the previous music therapists working with her saw her progressed by leaps and bounds going from lying on the floor and unwilling to engage she's sitting up straight engaging in a full 45-minute session again hey Abby hey is it okay if I ask a few questions on camera yeah yeah um yeah do you like making friends yes Abby was actually found in a trash can she was screaming her full head off thankfully and the police officer took her to the orphanage she had she it's hard for you to talk about this you know do you like to be alone or do you like friends oh I like but the earth came from there are times that Abby will just start wailing and crying in a very very loud way doesn't happen very often maybe once or twice a year even it's not even that often not anymore but you know if it wasn't for that whale and that scream she wouldn't be alive today when you're around people are you happy or sad oh happy when you're alone are you happy or sad she's lucky to be alive I mean she really when I see Abby's a miracle I mean you know to to have the condition that she has the genetic condition that she has and to have survived that and thrived in spite of it to have been left the way she was to be found and to and to live through that and and thrive in spite of it and find her way home halfway across the world she's a miracle I'm mr. Rodriguez and I'm Abby's teacher what's it like to be Abby's teacher is one of the most amazing things in the world she was actually the firt we have you know case managers for special education students and when I first started teaching she was my first student that I case manager I was in charge of her and making sure she was all taken care of and I think Abby will always have a special place in my heart for that i mike coffee period I like period her Braille is more sight-word based I like hot tea with sugar Peter you do you saw me working on her when she was reading in the book those are a list of words and pages that she's able to read together so she is able to read and she is able to comprehend what she is able to read I found the music while you work yes oh oh wrecking ball oh oh yeah we gain every day all right you gotta stay focused work hard okay every day if we can co-share don't lean back yeah yeah when the co okay no thank you cliff Jimmy come when he away oh hey hey hey so we teach her how to fold we teach her money skills we teach her how to cook sometimes so hopefully those skills will be beneficial for her down in the future every day if we can coach you don't lean fat in it when they toasted nothing like you with Jimmy come with you hey hey hey hey nothing like you when using me come what hey hey are you done yes thank you you're welcome how has the idea of being adopted changed as you've gotten older I think when you're like a little kid it's just a thing it's like oh okay well now you're my parents so you know that's that's awesome right because you get a home and everything and you you know you get I think that's all you you know people want is like security and safety but then you know as you grow older um and you know for me I've you know in the back of my mind I kind of you know wonder why my parents of course you know gave me up Bethany is a senior in high school and she's taking ring reading and English and comprehension and also she's preparing to go to a vocational Center next year I miss Kay and I am Bethany's English teacher the camel said I am tall so it is easy what is Braille Braille is raised dots the pig said and I'll and I am so sure that I'm sure I am right are you happy with everything at school yes what are you happy about friends and teachers and all the materials that my teacher by me with Anna has a job she works five days a week in a bakery and coffee shop the most important thing is to remember where everything is in relation to where everything is like where the shell and instance this the tool chest is right directly behind me and I can hear people washing their dishes and the sink the sink Bay it's kind of behind me and right I can hear the stove in the oven sore it's my left she started at Cameron's coffee and chocolates which is very special place about a year and a half ago we're making a strawberry and then I'm using my talking scale here got it Kells my name is Kelsey Sohail I'm Hanna's a job coach how do you make sure you don't give anybody when you're walking around so I just tell everybody that I'm coming up either behind them or next to them or or in front of them he's learned so much I mean since you know when she first started she tried to figure out the place and um but now she's able to do pretty much everything I mean she just needs the verbal prompts really just trail with the back of my hand like I do at home it's like using the back of the hand or something and it like if you're touching like surfaces like other surfaces it's it doesn't get anything dirty yeah it is David is 19 he's now a freshman at George Mason University and he is living on campus this is his second semester what's it like to be in the small little dorm room with roommates um it can be fun honestly we mostly keep to ourselves a lot of the time but you know you know what's great is if I ever need like help with like my computer or something I can just call Matt or Eric over and they're really helpful yes to sighted roommates so he is living the college dorm experience as a as a freshman David with the first person that like I've had to have like contact with in terms of having being with a blind person before so I mean this is quite an interesting experience that with them what have you learned living in the small little room with David um I guess it's just like I always figured that I'd have to help him with a lot of things but David definitely done a lot of things on its own so I was like he sometimes lets go out for likes out times over with Brian and then like he says we help him a lot but I mean I don't help him like too often he manages that doing I don't know very frequently so David gets around campus with a variety of different kinds of technologies he course law he uses his white cane gives us another application called nearby Explorer which is designed for blind people and he actually can point it in the direction that he's going the app will tell him which direction to go mostly I'm just sliding it to make to make sure there's like a shoreline or make sure there's no obstacles you know I basically know where all you know math stuff is where all Eric's stuff is and I just know where my stuff is and I try to keep my a little corner of the room contained you know so like on the on the hooks where we keep all our clothing and stuff I'm the first one you're the door and then you know it's everyone else's and then four drawers mine's just like right beneath my bed so it's pretty easy to tell where everything is as the only college student of the adopted children do you feel like an outsider in my family yes um no I would say um I get along with my siblings very well I always try to help them out as much as I can and you know I'm like not musically talented at all so you know sometimes I'll ask Hannah for you know defer to Hannah on like musical things somebody to oh they do come home from school one by one oh dang my god they come in and get their snack and just gonna chill out do you ever wish you could see it's not my best wish I I live like this way yeah me too no matter what problems I'm going through I can just stay happy most of the time what are Jesse's diagnosis Jesse well of course she has a retinopathy of prematurity and she jesse has autism spectrum disorder she has intellectual disabilities he has a musical repertoire that's unbelievable she probably knows 50 songs maybe 80 songs that will just come out of her out of the clear blue sky and a doctor this year a neurologist was talking about that she has some savant you know characteristics and tendencies because she's got her musical therapy which is really important to her can draw you know into some of her you know mental capacities that we can't understand how the connections are made but the music therapy has really helped to bring that out can Abby travel independently within the house she can yeah all of our kids on except for Oh bed hi cliff hey Abby Hey this is downstairs yeah since all your siblings are blind does that mean they need help getting around the house um no they pretty much just like me they've basically we've memorized how to get around our house and how to navigate and things like that so at this point we can basically all just go wherever we want more stairs at dinnertime it's kind of it's it's almost like an orchestra because the kids the kids come in they know that you know there's there's a lot of pieces and parts of feeding this number of people so Obon does not eat independently so there are times that we get to work with him and he'll try to use a fork or spoon so he kind of knows what to do but he's not in control of all of his muscle reactions because of his cerebral palsy right so he has spastic motions but he kind of knows what to do let's try let's try Obed okay watch us okay what try try okay go ahead see he knows what to do good good way I get my food independently is by the the format of where everything is imagining again o'clock so the meatloaf is between eleven and twelve which is kind of left and straight up above then the peas and some at six - but the peas are it but four and five and the mashed potatoes I eat them all they used to be in between one two and three and maybe even four but I ate them all after dinner everybody heads upstairs one by one make time comes pretty early in our house normally on a school night you know by 7:30 you know these kids are up and they're ready to ready to go to bed I yeah I love you too good night I would just say I love you and I just finally you know I would start leaving off you I love and I would just wait and wait and I'd say it again and then I might have to finish it again and start over and say it again and then all of a sudden one day she said you know in your safe bed what inspired you to adopt six children that are blind we certainly never saw after adopting a child who's blind that just happened it just happened each time it just happened coincidentally each time good night good night all right I'll see in the morning yeah all right do you need another kiss ended up in our home you know because of you know what are its oppressive stances circumstances and they found their forever home and they found their sort of their siblings and you know they became a family they they needed their brothers and sisters just as much as the kids became a family they could get together and we were assigned to be their parents it was a long day 5 p.m. not from 5:00 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. that's a very long day so we kind of drift off to sleep what's the last thing you think about before bed um the last thing I think about is my next day and how well it's gonna go do you think the world is a good place of course yes it is why because in my world everything sounds so happy you

Channel: Special Books by Special Kids

Views: 9,043,995

Keywords: A Day in the Life, Blind, Visual Impairment, Chris Ulmer, SBSK, Special Books by Special Kids, Inclusion, Autism

Id: ZVniBmf0uT4

Length: 31min 40sec (1900 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 07 2019

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[u/wannabe1987]

I love SBSK