Families with disabilities get together to share their lives

Every family has their own struggles, and they’re not all the same.

Saturday hundreds of families with disabilities got together in El Paso to learn from each other.

The Children’s Disabilities Information Coalition and Region 19 Head Start put the event together, inviting parents and patients to turn out and learn different ways to live with disabilities.

“I don’t see a disability being a burden, I see it as a blessing in disguise . it shows you a different world you never knew existed,” said Alina Arredondo, the keynote speaker at the

A point of view shared by many at the 28th annual Children’s Disabilities Symposium, with parents and patients attending talks and workshops to learn more about finding that special balance needed in their lives.

“As a parent, I’m not a parent myself, but I’m sure it’;s very difficult seeing your child needing help and wanting to run toward that child and help them, but if you know there are certain limitations, or you don’t know yet, let them see how far their limits are,” Arredondo said.

Once those limits are found? Learning how to accept them and ask for help.

“Some people right away run toward me and they say ‘oh let me help, let me help you!’ but it’s fine, if I can do it I will try, if I can’t do it I will ask for your help,” explained Arredondo.

But disabilities affect the whole family, so we asked parents for their words of advice to other families in similar situations.

“All the help you can get, all the support you can have makes it easier of course, not only for us as parents but it’s important for the child,” said Martha Gonzalez, a mother to a son with a disability.

Seeking help not only from loved ones, but events like this that show families they’re not alone.

“Every time that we can learn something, I recommend it for parents to take advantage of everything that we can so we can learn something to improve our kids,” Gonzalez said.