S3_Ep-05: Who Has It Harder in a Special Needs Marriage?

More from Specialness Pod

1. 

   S3 · E8 · 15 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 13 min

   S3_Ep-08: The Special Needs Grief No One Talks About

   When people hear the word grief, they think someone died. For special needs parents, the grief is different. It's the life you planned for and never got to live, and it doesn't fade. It compounds. In this episode, Jeff and Kim talk openly about the grief nobody in the special needs world seems allowed to name. The milestones that never come. The family gatherings where the gap becomes impossible to ignore. The jealousy that shows up watching friends drop their kids at college. And why, after almost 25 years, the grief has actually gotten heavier, not lighter. If you have ever felt guilty for…

2. 

   S3 · E7 · 31 Jul 2026 · 47 min

   S3_Ep-07: A Special Needs Mom Doctors Gave No Hope, Twice | Julia Erman (Part 2 of 2)

   Part 2 of our conversation with Julia Erman, a special needs mom whose two children share an ultra rare diagnosis. This is the half about what she did with it.Julia found out her kids were dying on her birthday, over a Zoom call. In this episode she talks about the faith that gave her peace that same day, why suffering builds a muscle most people never have to grow, and how a conversation at a backyard cookout turned into The Hazelnut Movement, a school program that has now reached 25 schools in 5 states.She also says something that stopped us: her daughter isn't the problem. Her own grief…

3. 

   S3 · E6 · 24 Jul 2026 · 46 min

   S3_Ep-06: A Special Needs Mom Doctors Gave No Hope, Twice | Julia Erman (Part 1 of 2)

   Our first ever guest. Julia Erman is a special needs mom, author, and founder of The Hazelnut Movement, and both of her children live with a diagnosis that only has a handful of documented cases in the world. In Part 1 of 2, Julia walks us through the beginning. A perfect birth that turned into a NICU emergency in 48 hours. A neurologist who took away every ounce of hope in two words. A second pregnancy that uncovered the cancer four doctors had missed. And the moment, two days after her son was born, when she realized it was happening all over again. This is one of the most honest…

4. 

   S3 · E4 · 9 Jul 2026 · 58 min

   S3_Ep-04: Special Needs Parenting Took Away Our Ability to Plan the Future

   We had plans.That sounds simple, but when you are raising a child with profound special needs, plans come with an asterisk.In this episode, we talk about the part of special needs parenting that is hard to explain to people who have never lived it. It is not just that your child’s future changes. Your future changes too.This conversation started with a reel that hit a nerve because so many parents said the same thing: you can’t really plan when you never know what is coming next.If you are a special needs parent, caregiver, or family member living with the constant unknown, this episode is…

5. 

   S3 · E3 · 2 Jul 2026 · 57 min

   S3_Ep-03: The Pediatric Cliff: What Happens When a Special Needs Child Becomes an Adult?

   When Cason started aging out of pediatric care, we thought the hardest part would be finding new doctors. We were wrong. The harder part was walking into the adult medical world and realizing how different everything felt. For years, pediatric specialists knew Cason, understood his history, and treated him like a whole person. Then suddenly we were in adult offices where the records had not always been read, guardianship was not always understood, and people expected Cason to answer questions he could not understand. In this episode, we talk about the pediatric cliff, the transition from…

6. 

   S3 · E2 · 26 Jun 2026 · 54 min

   S3_Ep-02: Does raising a special needs child really lead to an 87% divorce rate?

   After one of our Instagram reels reached more than 180,000 views, hundreds of parents shared their stories, challenged the statistic, and started one of the most meaningful conversations we've ever had.In this episode, we revisit that viral reel, correct the misinformation, and talk about what the research actually says.More importantly, we talk about what the comments revealed.Special needs parents opened up about marriages that grew stronger, marriages that fell apart, single parenting, caregiver burnout, trauma bonding, financial stress, and the daily realities that most people never…

7. 

   S3 · E11 · 7 Oct 2026 · 1 hr 10 min

   S3_Ep-11: What NOT to Say to a Special Needs Parent

   Can't you control your child? You're so strong, I could never do it. God doesn't give you more than you can handle. Every special needs parent keeps a running list of the things people say, and this week we are going through ours.Jeff and Kim get into the comments they hear from strangers, friends, and family. What they want to fire back in the moment, and what they have learned to say instead to actually educate the person in front of them. They also name the comment that stings the most, the one quietly hiding inside all the others: I'm just glad I'm not you.And they end on the thing they…

8. 

   S3 · E10 · 26 Sep 2026 · 1 hr 13 min

   S3_Ep-10: They Stopped Inviting Us | The Isolation of Special Needs Parenting

   For most people, isolation is a choice. For special needs families, it isn't. It happens to you, and it comes wrapped in a grief that has no recognizable end. Jeff and Kim talk about the two things their community lives with that rarely get named together: isolation and grief, and why the two are so tightly intertwined. The invitations that slowly stop coming. The birthday parties you leave early. The milestones that hit just as hard at 25 as they did at 5. And the quiet decision so many families make to just stop going, because it is easier than being stared at. They also share something…

9. 

   S3 · E9 · 2 Sep 2026 · 1 hr 15 min

   S3_Ep-09: When Special Needs Means Mental Illness, and No One Takes It Seriously

   In the mental health world, there is no blood test. No x-ray. Just a subjective judgment that changes from one doctor's office to the next, and a family left to live with the consequences.Jeff and Kim get honest about the part of special needs parenting that society files under "dangerous" or "crazy" and refuses to take seriously. They walk through Cason's mental health journey from the beginning: the manic behavior at four, the neuropsychologist who suspected bipolar one, the renowned psychiatrist who dismissed it as "just ADHD," and the medication trial and error that made everything…

10. 

    S3 · E1 · 16 Jun 2026 · 1 hr 4 min

    S3_Ep-01: One Phone Call Changed the Next 10 Months of Our Lives

    After nearly a year away, we're back.What was supposed to be a simple three-day getaway turned into one of the hardest seasons we've faced as special needs parents.The day before our trip, our son Cason suffered a devastating ankle injury that required surgery and months of recovery. What followed was nine weeks of around-the-clock caregiving, medication complications, mobility challenges, emotional exhaustion, and the return of struggles we thought were behind us.At the same time, we were fighting another battle: a 30-month journey through the Social Security disability system. After…

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