But one day we found that Mario was not looking at our hand. He was looking at us. We were his mirror. And the problem, as you might feel, is that we were down, we were depressed, we were looking at him as a problem, not as a son, not from a positive perspective. And that day really changed our perspective. We realized that we had to become a better mirror for Mario. – Roberto D’Angelo

It’s 12  : 30 PM on day 1069 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself boiled egg and Bran Flakes  for breakfast, pray, read 1 Samuel 3,   publish my Disability of the Day feature   and   tweet and Facebook about my campaign – I am nothing if not persistent my granny’s sick in hospital (she had a minor stroke three day ago she’s much better now), nobody’s donating and yet I keep trying, trying and trying some more.

A while back I watched Roberto D’Angelo + Francesca Fedeli: In our baby’s illness, a life lesson – a Ted Talk by Roberto D’Angelo and Francesca Fedeli about what their son’s Cerebral Palsy has taught them – Roberto’s message to parents and my message to parents are one and the same don’t see your children as problems see them as gifts  so often when parents receive a diagnoses of Autism, Down Syndrome or Cerebral Palsy they start seeing their children as projects something to fix and in the process they forget that they’re children are human beings before they are anything else. Watch Roberto D’Angelo + Francesca Fedeli: In our baby’s illness, a life lesson below: