A Mother’s Day Special with Kate Swenson, a very special mom.
Kate dreamed of being a mother from a very young age. While other young girls dreamed of being a ballerina or president, being a mother was hers. And that dream came true 11 years ago with the birth of her son, Cooper. Kate and her husband now have two more sons and a daughter. Her dream though came with an unexpected path. At the age of three, Cooper was diagnosed with nonverbal autism.
Kate is the creator of the blog and Facebook page Finding Cooper’s Voice and the author of the newly released Forever Boy: A Mother’s Memoir of Autism and Finding Joy. Yes, the word is JOY. Listen to a woman who exceeds our expectations of what motherhood is. Cooper now has a vocabulary of 20 words. He’s in 5th grade. Kate dedicated her book this way: ‘To the boy who smells like the wind, the boy who saved me, the boy who healed our family, the girl who completed us and my husband for never giving up on me.’
When she started her blog, Kate was doing it for herself. Because she wanted to know that she was not alone. And she found out that she wasn’t. She just had to be the one to start. Today she has close to a million followers who engage with her and helped her to build a community. It’s not just about autism. Add in parenting and motherhood. Kate’s mission is to create a safe place for families and teens with special needs to come together and laugh, cry, and support each other.
Kate is also the co-founder of The More Than Project. Founded in 2021, the project focuses on special needs caregiving and the family as a unit.