I was determined to find some focus groups, meetings or something for couping for families  of Osteogenesis Imperfecta and I stumbled across this lovely website. On this website there was information for for support networks, research an studies, and also resources for parents. There was so much that I wanted to find out about on this website but I needed to stick to what I was looking for which was support groups. The links that they had for support groups were: official OI foundation facebook, official oi ning, OI parents facebook, OI dads facebook, and OI parents yahoo group.

     First I clicked on the official OI foundation facebook to see if it would take me to the website to chat with current individuals with OI. What I found was a direct link to facebook (of course I had to log in). Once I logged in I found an up to date page for families with OI. One post caught my eye, a mother posted that she (and her husband) could not longer care (financially and emotionally) for their daughter and she wanted to know if someone could adopt her. I know that having a child is stress financially and emotionally but the stress level is higher when you have a child with a disability. I'm not in their situation but I could never find it in my heart to give my child up for adoption. The Lord intends for things to happen in your life to make you stronger and if  were in that situation I would put all my strength in fighting for my child and making sure that he/she was with me regardless of the situation.
      Next I visited the next link on the website which was official oi ning. What I found was that you have to be a member of this page in order to post or comment on some one's status. This site had several different groups that was labeled by their level (level I, level II, etc). I do see recent activity on here but there is not a lot of discussion going on as there was on facebook. On this page people were just posting that they were new to the page and or some issue. question they have but there were not as many replies as there were on facebook.
      Next I visited the OI parents facebook link. What I found was that this was a closed (private group) if you wanted to join you wold have to send an email to one of the administrators of the group and some information about yourself and/or your children in order for the approval to join the group.
      Next I visited the OI dads facebook link. What I found was that this too was a closed (private group). They had a join group tab, I'm assuming that you don't need to send an administrator any special information in order to be approved for this group.
      Finally I visited the OI parents yahoo group. What I found was that this group has 890 members. They have certain guidelines that you have to follow when you are replying to a post or creating a post for other to view. In order to join this group you have to have a yahoo email address set up (which is understandable). This chat/group is current because there are ten new messages and three new photos that were updated by their members.
    Overall, I'm very excited to have found some chat/support groups (yeah!!!!). I was excited because everyone needs some kind of support whether or not you have a child with a disability. Everyone needs support in the world that we live in today! :^) Until next time....


The website that I found this information from is http://www.oif.org/site/PageServer?pagename=SN_FindGroup