The school year has begun for all the children. Goals are made; classes are full go; children know what to do to make their studies and extracurricular a priority. Simplify that to our own lives and we have to ask, “Is our marriage a priority?” So many of us are very into our children’s lives and the activities they do to keep busy and active; but what about us? Where do we fit in our own lives … [Read more...]
Profess-Process-Progress
Do you often think that your everyday spiritual life shows little progress in growing spiritually? When our girls were little, we could see their daily and even moment to moment physical development progress and changes, but our now 42- year-old son Joey (who has special needs) was different; his progress was often so hard to identify as really moving forward, yet, when others didn’t see him for a … [Read more...]
Five Important Ways to Support, Help, and Encourage Foster Parents
Walking into a new and unfamiliar home, announcing her name, and leaving her mom behind without any tears came a 5-year old little girl who couldn’t write her name, count to 3 or say the alphabet and entered our daughters’ home and our hearts. Within 3 days her little half-sister was brought home from the hospital - withdrawing from drugs. By the time Big Sister turned 6 (just 2.5 months later), … [Read more...]
3 Ways to Keep Your Marriage Strong When Parenting a Child with Special Needs
Whack-a-mole reminds me of a few things: Raising a lot of small children Having children close together Parenting a Child with Special Needs In each of these times of life my mind goes to diaper changes, crying, screaming, feeding on demand; naps that aren’t happening and nights that are interrupted. Also coming to mind is tired, weary, and sometimes being overwhelmed and even … [Read more...]
Raising Kids Who Have Compassion
None of us will parent perfectly-so let’s take that pressure right off our shoulders; but we will always teach our children whether we model life indirectly (as they watch and then model us), or teach directly (“this is how we do it”). Parents all desire to teach their children important things that will make them better siblings, children, and someday adults. As parents, we wish we could share … [Read more...]
Need HELP? Need Therapy? How to know…
Therapy used to be a word and situation of which some people were afraid. More recently it seems many people are “in therapy” and it’s probably a really good and healthy thing. So whether it’s your marriage that is in a tough place, you’re wondering if you’re doing the right “things” to help your children, or you have a special needs family and you feel like you’re floundering; consider therapy to … [Read more...]