(bright guitar music) - We adopted our daughter from Korea and prior to actually getting her, we had signed every paperwork saying, we could not handle any form of special needs.

- When she arrived from Korea, she was four months old and they were no known disabilities at that point in time.

It was probably a couple months or so later and she was approaching six months.

And developmentally, she was not doing anything pretty much that she should have been at that point in time.

So it was a finding, okay, after the fact.

- Physically she has the ability of a three month old.

And she was probably 12 at the time when I finally saw that.

And, you know, that hurt, but you never thought about, well that's true.

She's never learned to roll over.

She can't hold herself up.

There's a lot of things in that way.

Our challenges have always been transportation, transitioning from a spot to another spot.

And one of my biggest pet peeves has been the blue stripes in a parking lot, because people don't respect them.

And we need to go forward and get a close spot so I don't have to be dragging a wheelchair out in the rain for half a parking lot.

- We share everything now, but early on while I was at work, the burden was on Karen, okay.

who stayed home and attended her, took her to, you know, she had a lot of doctor's appointments, a lot of other things.

So there was a lot of things to do, even though she wasn't working, she had a full-time job at home.

- The community of special needs parents is strong.

She grew up with a lot of people in the Rochester area.

She's on special Olympic bowling, and there's a lot there that you share with people.

- Nothing can prepare you for what we have gone through, to be quite honest with you, you know?

So it was a lot of living, you know, and learn along the way.

And you know, she did a lot of the leg work.

I have to admit, Karen was just fantastic at that.

But yeah, I learned along the way.

I learned, you know, and it wasn't easy.

There was never really an easy step, okay?

But I have to also say, it's been very rewarding, okay?

She is just a wonderful, wonderful young lady.

(bright guitar music) - My husband was my first caregiver experience.

For eight years, he had Alzheimer's.

As the time went by, it was, you needed more help, more help.

You know, he was kind of a heavy guy, and he was a lot to handle.

But I did have a nurse come in at one point in time and she helped me get him upstairs and, you know, she saw what I did.

She says, "Wow, I never thought I'd do it that way."

I said, "I've just been doing this for years."

I said, you know, it's what you do for a loved one.

It was easy for me to take care of him because I was married to him for 55 years.

I would make him laugh every day, 'cause he was easy to make laugh, okay?

So you had to think he was feeling things, but you didn't know what he was feeling, 'cause he never could tell me he hurt or, you know, I'd go, "Does this hurt?

Does this hurt?

Does that hurt?"

You know, no response.

Basically you gotta get the family involved, you know, the doctors involved, those type of people that can help you with stuff, you know, caregiver information.

I bring him here every week, and he was totally taken care of.

(bright guitar music)