The Longest Shortest Time

EPISODE #133: Alex and the Oracular Lamb

For the last four years, I’ve been pen pals with a woman named Alex, on the other side of the world. Alex is a writer and storyteller living in Australia. She also happens to have Cerebral Palsy.

When Alex first wrote me, she was dating this great guy, named Ben. They were about to move in together, and Alex was itching to ask Ben whether he might be open to having kids one day–but the question just felt way too big to ask.

Tune in this week, as Alex tells the story of how she mustered the courage to finally have the kid convo… with the help from a tiny, supernatural-looking stuffed animal.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

Watch Alex in Action
Here’s Alex’s TedX talk on storytelling. She makes up a story with her audience on the fly!

Parenting with a Disability
As you’ll hear in this story, the support that parents with disabilities need often differs from what most people would think. Here are some resources built to help parents with disabilities with their actual needs.

Through the Looking Glass conducts research and provides training and services for families in which a child, parent, or grandparent has a disability.

The Disabled Parenting Project has created a community to help parents and prospective parents with disabilities to connect. It also offers resources and ideas for adaptive parenting, and advocates for social justice for disabled families.

What big, scary questions have you had to tackle with your partner, as you thought about how to make a family?
Let us know in the comments below!

Hero Image Credit: Headshot by Tammy Law

Our sponsors for this episode are Spice Islands, Casper Mattresses (code: LONGSHORT), GoGo SqueeZ, and Thrive Market. Use the promo codes at checkout for a special discount.