Monadnock Developmental Services played a big role in my life as I grew up. When I was four, my brother was born with serious mental and physical developmental issues. My parents had to have skilled, 24/7 at home nursing come into our home so that my dad could continue to work while my mom quit her job to stay at home and work with the nursing staff. After six months my parents had to find an alternative to the 24/7 nursing because we lived in a small duplex and, even with nursing, my brother kept my parents up all night. They found Cedarcrest and were able to get him placed shortly thereafter. At that point we were living in Nashua and traveling six to seven days a week to visit my brother in Keene. Shortly after placing him we moved to Peterborough so that we could be halfway between my dad’s job and my brother. Having him in a place where he could be cared for 24/7 while my parents could also work and sleep made a big difference. As he grew and developed my mom worked with MDS to help get the educational things that he needed. They helped with making decisions about his education and getting his communication devices, as well as guidance with integration between being part of the school district but also only taking his stimulation and coordination classes at Cedarcrest. With the help of MDS my parents were able to balance their time more equally between my brother’s health, schooling, and visits, and bringing me to sports practices, school and seeing my friends. Before finding a place for him and before getting the help with his developmental goals and progress, my parents were spending 7 days a week traveling to see him and trying to navigate setting goals for him, as well as his health and hospital visits. I spent a lot of time in after school programs and traveling with my parents. After starting to get guidance and help for him, my parents started having more time to spend with me and focusing on our entire family. Without the support from MDS we wouldn’t have had the ability to be as close to a normal family as we were. Thank you for all the help and support you give. It means the world that we had a support system to help out our family.