This Mom Nails How We Feel About Special Needs Marriage Statistics

Erin Jones doesn’t care what the statistics say about special needs marriages.

Jones, aside from being the face behind the prescription selfie that launched the #MedicatedAndMighty movement, is a former hair stylist who took a break from the trade for the last six years to homeschool and care for her four children with special needs. She’s on the autism spectrum and also lives with ADD, SPD, celiac disease, hypothyroidism and hyperparathyroidism as well as anxiety and depression.

On Monday, Dec. 7, Jones posted a photo with her husband on her Facebook page with a moving description of marriages between parents of children with special needs.

The post read:

Special needs marriages — just like other marriages, only spicier. I read the statistics, just like you do. I know how most of them turn out. Here’s what else I know though… I’m no number. This man is no number. Love is hard. It hurts sometimes. It’s the ultimate yin and yang. Some days you won’t be all right and you won’t know how anything will ever be all right again… but you stay, and somehow it’s more than all right. It’s your twisted fairy tale come true. Your warped perfection.

The 36-year-old from Nashville, Tennessee, has been married for six years to her husband Brandon Jones, but they’ve been together for eight years. The statistics Jones refers to are the numbers pointing to an increased likelihood of divorce in parents of children with special needs, however new research challenges whether this is actually the case.

No matter what the number say, Jones isn’t paying attention.

“Love comes with lots of emotions, but love is a choice, not a feeling,” Jones told The Mighty in a Facebook message. “Statistics don’t matter. My choice, our choice, to continue to love and live together is why we continue to fall deeper into this beautiful friendship called marriage.”