Mighty Miracles Foundation
Amanda Dickinson is a professor, writer, former public school teacher and founder of Mighty Miracles Foundation. She has experience teaching health and physical education in public schools in Oklahoma and Missouri, with experience in Pre-K-12th. She is an assistant professor and Director of sports leadership and exercise science at Oklahoma Wesleyan University, where she teaches future educators, therapists, and coaches, bringing her professional and parental perspective on differing needs and abilities.
Amanda, Kaleb and Kaden Dickinson
The Origin Story
Amanda lives in Bartlesville, Oklahoma (45 minutes north of Tulsa) with her husband TJ, and her two boys; Kaden, a second-grader, and Kaleb, who is in Pre-K. Kaleb is her ornery and stubborn five-year-old who has shown since birth he was writing his own rule book. Amanda reflects that while she went into education she really didn't have much experience working with individuals with disabilities until her son was born.
Kaleb's Birth
Kaleb was born at 28 weeks at 2lb 2oz and a birth diagnosis of Down syndrome. Since he has also added cerebral palsy to his medical file. Amanda has authored two books: Our NICU Story, which highlights the emotional journey of the NICU and a children's book "My NICU Story."
Kaden and Kaleb Dickinson
Kaleb and Kaden Dickinson
"To Families who found themselves thrown into the world that is the NICU: this is a frightening but magical place, filled with worry but also with hope. We stand with you on this journey." Excerpt from the Dedication in: "My NICU Story" by Amanda Dickinson.
What is the Mighty Miracles Foundation?
Amanda founded Mighty Miracles Foundation, a nonprofit that sends free care packages to current NICU families across the country. Their care packages contain several things including books, bonding hearts, bracelets, tote bags, and NICU art. They also love partnering with NICUs and other nonprofits. In fact, they partner with a local private school for kids with Autism who do the printing and care package assembly of the care packages as a job training option. To find out more about the work done by the foundation check out their website Mighty Miracles Foundation and their Facebook Group.To hear more from Amanda check out Episode 29 of The Raising Kellan Podcast and be sure to rate, review and subscribe.
Transcript
Marsh Naidoo (00:23):
Welcome to this episode of Raising Kellan, the podcast to motivate, inspire, and educate parents, raising kids with special needs. I'm your host, Marsh Naidoo, and today on episode number 29, we chat with Amanda Dickinson. Amanda is a professor, writer, and founder of the Mighty Miracles Foundation. Mighty Miracles is an organization that highlights the emotional journey of the N I C U. Amanda is mom to Caden, a second grader, as well as Caleb, her five-year-old that has a dual diagnosis of Down Syndrome as well as cerebral palsy. She's the assistant professor and director of Sports Leadership and exercise science at Oklahoma Wesley University, where she teaches future educators, therapists, and coaches. Welcome to the show, Amanda. We're gonna kick off with our first question, which is, what is the Mighty Miracle Foundation?
Amanda Dickinson (01:36):
Usually when I talk to people about Mighty Miracles Foundation, I always explained that it started with the birth of our second son. Caleb surprised us by being born 12 weeks premature at 28 weeks, two pounds, two ounces, and it was a whirlwind born with two brain bleeds, heart defects, that was then later repaired and a birth diagnosis of Down Syndrome. And I remember sitting in my postpartum room just in shock, and I remember thinking that it was so different from the birth of my first child and there were the balloons and the congratulations from family and friends and nurses and baby items everywhere. And there wasn't one baby item to be found with Caleb. And I remember thinking, I wish I was rich because if I had all the money in the world, I would send every parent going through the NICU, a gift I would need.
(02:34):
I wanted to do something for them. And then that morphed into the 99 days I sat in the NICU room, and I would watch parents be escorted in for the first time and I would see that shocked look and trying to take it all in this brand new world they found themselves thrown into. And then that morphed into the world of the NICU book that I wrote. That's part of our care packages. And finally, in late 2016, early 2017, we founded Mighty Miracles Foundation and we send out free care packages to families currently going through the NICU all across the country.
Marsh Naidoo (03:09):
Amanda, the care package has totally blown me away. Can you give our listeners an idea of what actually goes care package
Amanda Dickinson (03:20):
Several things. We like to send out books. The world of the NICU that I wrote, that I told you about. We also send out a children's book that parents can bond with baby and read to baby siblings can get involved in the AT grandparents. It's just a way to open up that door of communication and something that you expect to do with a newborn baby is to read to them. And so they're able to still do that in a nicu. We send out bracelets to show your support for your nicu, baby keepsakes, a NICU tree for your NICU staff to sign a guest print, NICU graduation certificate, NICU art, their heavily laminated little -prints that we had designed that can be sanitized as often as necessary to hang up around the isolate bed or NICU room. Geez. Oh, the other book that we wrote, the children's book, our NICU story goes in there as well. And I know I'm forgetting other items, but there's a lot that goes into our care packages.
Marsh Naidoo (04:21):
So guys, Amanda's website, Mighty Miracles foundation org also delivers another valuable resource, and that's your downloadable templates. I know often family members and extended family wanna know how they can contribute or how they can just help parents out that are facing the N I C U journey. And I think that list is awesome. You guys cover everything from meals, helping with our household chores, and as I said, that's just a really very valuable resource
Amanda Dickinson (05:00):
That's actually part of our World of the NICU book. And so that booklet, while I put it together, it was a labor of love with NICU nurses, RTs, PTs, NICU parents, former current that I went to them and hey, I wanna hear all your ideas. What helped you out the best when you're in the NICU? What would you tell other family and friends? And so we had that. It was important to us to offer that as a printable to give to churches, families, friends, so as they know proven ways to help out NICU families.
Marsh Naidoo (05:37):
How are the care packages actually distributed to Amanda? Do parents kind of receive that in a at the N I C U or how does it reach the parents' hands?
Amanda Dickinson (05:50):
It happens in a few different ways. Our main way is by the request link that is found on our website and we ship them directly to the parents. Another way is we have been increasing our partnerships with NICU to where we have several NICU give out to parents when they are getting discharged from the nicu. Other NICU's partner with us to keep our little request cards on hand that direct parents where to go to request them because we found out privacy ways and everything. It's easier to just send-straight to the parents.
Marsh Naidoo (06:34):
Now your five year old Caleb, can you tell us a little bit about that bundle of joy?
Amanda Dickinson (06:39):
Oh my goodness. He's an ornery little Turkey. I have my hands full, that's for sure. He was a fighter. In fact, I love time hop and Facebook memories and I was going through it because obviously five years ago we were right in the middle of things at the NICU and I found my status the other day. The memory popped up that said, Caleb continues to do so well as one nurse just put it, someone forgot to tell him he's so tiny and is it supposed to be doing this good? He's just been a fighter through and through and he is in pre-K now he goes to the private Christian school where Big brother goes and goes with his little walker every day. And his love in life, he's Mr. Social. He is a little rare in the fact that he has a dual diagnosis that not too many kiddos with Down syndrome have. He has Down Syndrome, Trisomy 21 plus he has cerebral palsy.
Marsh Naidoo (07:38):
I have to give a quick shout-out to Rebecca Renfro because she actually told me about you as well as the uh, the Miracles Foundation. So Rebecca, I know you listening. Thank you so much for making this connection happen on the same account. Amanda, I know that there is that mom out there listening to us today that needs that word of encouragement as she sits with her baby in that NICU. What is the advice that you would offer to that Mom listening.
Amanda Dickinson (08:11):
We use this quote for our NICU babies, but it applies for NICU parents as well. If the only thing you did today was breathe, that's okay that sometimes you in the nicu, you have to take it sometimes, not just day by day, but even hour by hour. That's okay. Feel your feelings, get through it. Know that you have support there through your NICU team, through other organizations, whether it's ourself or other organizations that reach out to you. There are people that want to be there for you. Feel your emotions. Breathe and take it just as it comes.
Marsh Naidoo (08:49):
Any other tips? I know Kangaroo K was really big for us. I mean that, I'm sure actually that is a huge part of why Kellan's pulled through the NICU. Uh, can you tell me a little bit about your experience with Kangaroo Kia Amanda?
Amanda Dickinson (09:09):
Absolutely. I always tell people I needed it as much as Caleb did. We know there's a lot of research out there that supports the benefits of kangaroo care, that skin, skin-to -kin contact. But we also see how beneficial it is for parents to be able to really bond and connect with baby. And that's one thing that I tell parents all the time is we hear, and I was there, I'm sure you were too. We feel like the baby becomes more the NICU sometimes than our own because we can't care for 'em. So find ways that you can really bond with baby while they're, whether it's reading the kangaroo whenever you can. A lot of moms, myself included, that's why I pumped as much as I could because that was my own unique contribution was I could provide breast milk for him to help him grow and thrive.
(10:04):
And so that was something for me to focus on. I feel like I could always do, oh, bonding hearts, which we do send out in care packages. Well, that way moms and dads can wear the hearts against their themselves, sleep with them, and then put them in baby's bed and leave that scent to comfort them and allow them to feel your presence there even when we can't be there. You walking away from the bed sometimes feels like you're literally walking away from your heart. And so we physically leave a heart there to, as a reminder, but find ways that you can do that. Maybe it's writing down daily notes, the weight checks, all of that stuff. It's a keepsake, but it also allows you to feel like you are doing something to still be important and be a part of your son or daughter's care.
Marsh Naidoo (10:55):
I'm gonna go take it back now to Mighty Miracles network. Your inspiration for writing the book, our N I C U story, what was the motivation for that?
Amanda Dickinson (11:10):
It was something I'd wanted to do since he was in the NICU and I really had always been scared. I was afraid I wouldn't put it into words. And so it kept me for years from not, I would have thoughts and parts of it, but I never really got serious about it till probably two or three years removed from the NICU. And I finally just started and I found, I wrote it so quickly once I finally started and one night I stayed up so late and just kept writing and typing. And one thing that really also stuck with me too is I always was scared about finding an illustrator that would really illustrate the NICU journey the way it should be illustrated. And I finally took one picture that was shared with us and I edit it and digitized it to make it look more of an illustration. And I loved how it turned out. So I went to our NICU groups that I'm a part of, and within 24 hours, I had more than 2,400 photo submissions of families that wanted to be a part of this book. And so we had a fun time trying to find the perfect pictures to illustrate our book.
Marsh Naidoo (12:19):
Wow. About two actually. My gosh, it's been since ever since the pandemic came about as well, I started putting my thoughts down and with three other moms, we combined a little booklet and self-published that with a similar motivation is that we just wanna help other parents out there as well, just provide some encouragement and guidance during this time. I'm just really curious. On the website, it said that the house, that Mighty Miracles Foundation flooded?
Amanda Dickinson (13:02):
Life is never dull in the Dickinson household. We, last summer, last May, we, our neighborhood where it's flooded, where our non-profit is house and we live flooded, we had four feet of water. And so we started out our summer 2019 with losing our house in a flood and the house was stripped to the studs. So I lost all of our Mighty Miracles items. I lost all of our baby items from my own sons. Pretty much everything was lost enough flood. But we've rebuilt and we are now back in our house, we have been able to then increase. And so in fact, we now partner with a private school here in Bartlesville Oklahoma, Path to Independence, a school for kids on the autism spectrum. And so they do our care package assembly and printing as part of their on-job training to get them ready for employment. So now a lot of our stuff is also housed there as they really work hard to get our care packages ready for families.
Marsh Naidoo (14:14):
All right. Well, is there anything else that you would like to share before you go? Are you good?
Amanda Dickinson (14:21):
I will say we are very excited. We are currently working to expand Mighty Miracles Foundation. So we are officially beginning a new chapter called Mighty Me, and it's for life after the NICU. So we are currently working actually with my university students with some other therapists and all that to provide free resources for parents and after the NICU. So we are very excited to be working on that and what that will look like. And so stay tuned.
Marsh Naidoo (14:52):
Amanda, for those guys wanting to reach out to you, what would be the best way for them to contact you?
Amanda Dickinson (14:59):
The best way is through our website. There's a Contact us tab on the website and on the website you can actually find my email address as well.
Marsh Naidoo (15:09):
All right. And guys, please check out Amanda and the Mighty Miracles Foundation on Facebook as well. I was going through your Facebook page earlier on today and I mean, it was almost, it's just flashbacks of what, And I see your life is I, And I think that was really interesting because you also get other parents to share their stories on and their experiences on your website. So I love that kind of collaboration. And Amanda, we hope to see you soon. You take care. Take care of those beautiful boys. And thank you once again for your time.
Amanda Dickinson (15:51):
Will do. Thank you for having me.
Marsh Naidoo (15:54):
Well, guys, we have come to the end of another episode of the Raising Kitan podcast and check out Amanda Dickinson's website, which is mighty miracles foundation.org for more resources as well as her Facebook group. And as always, we would really appreciate a great review and share of this podcast on your podcast provider. Guys, until we see all the next time, remember, get to the top of that mountain. This is Marsh Naidoo signing off.