Zion is always giving me a run for my money. If there's any possibility of him running his agenda instead of mine, he'll take it.

I can't let that happen.

Because my husband and I work opposite shifts, I am, for all practical purposes, a single mother Monday through Friday. I have to make the rules and the meals, set the boundaries and the table. It's not easy.

Zion is a stubborn, particular child. I am crazy about him. He is definitely all boy. But keeping up with him, his needs, his behaviors, is a never-ending battle.

You know, there is nothing I'd rather be than the mother of my two precious children. I am proud and pleased and in love with who they are. With Zion's disability, it would be so easy to give up, to say, oh, he'll be fine, or, I'm doing all I can do, or even worse, he doesn't want to so I'm not going to make him.

That's not me. That's not who I am. Because, while he's here, while he's eight, and can't fully grasp why this is so important, why we have him do this and that and the other, I am here and his dad is here and his tutor and IEP team are here, to stand alongside Zion, and fight the good fight.