About One Step at a Time
About the authors
For health care professionals
Testimonials
Media Coverage and Speaking Events

About One Step at a Time

Is there a child in your life who's been severely injured or is facing a serious illness?

After years of working with children, the authors realized that parents need more information and support to handle their child's hospitalization. The result - this inspirational and informative book.

One Step at a Time includes:

Messages and helpful hints from parents who have been through similar experiences

• Tips from nurses and other health care professionals(more)
• Inspirational poems, quotes and meditations (more)
• Information on hospital terminology, chains of command and protocols
• Advice for parents on helping siblings cope
• Tips on how to help children take medicine
• Guidance on navigating the ups and downs of the hospital experience - from admission and handling visitors, to adjusting to a new environment and advocating for your child's needs
• Journal pages for parents to document day-to-day events during their child's hospitalization and to express their emotions
• Tips on leaving the hospital and going home

Sample Pages:

A sample poem from One Step at a Time:

Starting the Race

That ache had been there all day – again. My chest felt like it could explode. I could feel the weight pressing down on me and it seemed my body would give away.

I felt that I needed to know exactly what to expect for my daughter’s treatment. I needed to see the whole picture. My husband felt that it would be too much to bear all at one time. I could only think of one way to explain:

I felt as if I was a runner. At the beginning of my race, I was told that I had five miles to run. But then I had a blindfold tied around my head. I was not told what to expect as I started out, except that the beginning would be a steep climb up. Now as my chest ached to the verge of bursting I needed to know. Did I have the whole five miles uphill? Would it level out soon? Were there rocks in the path? Would I run downhill? I needed to know so that I could pace myself and not collapse from sheer exhaustion before the course was completed.

When I did receive her treatment plan it was frightening, complex and painful to anticipate – but now I knew. Now I could have a “map” to plan my course. I knew there were possible detours or delays along the way, but that there were definite uphills, plateaus, and times of “coasting” downhill. And finally I found my chest didn’t always ache with the exhaustion of apprehension. I could run this race.

- Kristina Bashor