Rachel and I have been eagerly trying to get this episode recorded for a while but have been too slammed with work. We have made some progress, which we share in this episode. There have also been some really big changes that we are having to adjust to in real-time. You hear us work through it together. We hope you find this valuable!

Rachel and I start the conversation about how to fill in some of the hours Nate will be missing once school ends. We discuss respite care, work, friend time, and individual support. We also got interrupted by our dog and our son, so apologies if we are a little scattered!

Rachel and I talk about what could be the future housing options for Nate, with the pros and cons of each.

Rachel and I return after a year hiatus to start a new season of the Nemhouse pod, focusing on the transition out of school and into adulthood for our son, Nate. We have some things already in place, but a ton of things left to figure out. We are going to use this season to help us come up with a plan to help Nate have a fulfilling life post-school and make sure we are not scrambling for solutions at the very end. We hope these conversations will be useful to you or ones you love.

We are back after a hiatus for a few weeks to talk about the challenges we have faced recently with childcare, and how it intersects with our careers. This is not really a new challenge, but newly relevant and resurfaced. Rachel and Brian share their independent and shared perspectives on how they have navigated this reality and how they are looking ahead.

We return to the chronological progression through our experience as Nate's parents and pick up at the point where Nate was moving back into a Special Education classroom for middle school. We share our reasons for the change, as well as how Rachel's career started to become intertwined with disability advocacy.

We wrap by touching on a big rite of passage for Nate that touched everyone involved.

If you have a story to share or just want to send us a message, please send it to brian@nemhouse.com.

There were three topics we wanted to circle back to before we continued our chronological march through our 20 years with Nate: medication, becoming an advocate, and the diagnosis.

Medication is a controversial topic in many households, and was in ours as well. Rachel and Brian share their perspectives on how they came to decisions around making medication a part of Nate's life.

Rachel went through a big journey to become an effective advocate for Nate in the school system. She shares more details on how that happened, how long it took, and some tips for shortening your path to advocacy.

Finally, Rachel and Brian share the way that Nate fell into a diagnosis after they had largely given up on the idea, and how that diagnosis played a large role in all their lives since.

Most people assume having a disabled child means everything will be more challenging. That has not been our experience. There are a number of things that have been delightful that we would have never anticipated. There are also some challenges that were hard to predict. Rachel and I cover those in an episode that takes a little break from our chronological story.