On Monday morning I woke up still feeling exhausted despite eight hours sleep. As many parents of children with special needs will confess, breaks and weekends are not really a time to relax. For those of us with school-age children often Monday morning can’t come soon enough. Before you think me a horrible mom, I want you to know I love both my sons, age 18 and 13, dearly. It’s just that my … [Read more...]
How can we survive grief as a special needs parent?
Since the first of March, grief has been my not-so-quiet companion. I try to keep most of my crying contained; when I’m in the shower or times when my two sons and husband aren’t home. But the grief and sadness burst out at random and inopportune moments. When will my eyes stop leaking? According to medicinenet.com grief is “the normal process of reacting to a loss.” It goes on to list … [Read more...]
A New Kind of Community? Continued Progress Needed!
The Lord knows we can all be pretty darn self-involved. The illustration a recent guest pastor at my church gave to make this point cracked me up. He said if he and his wife hold hands while sitting in the front seats of their car they hear a big “NOOOOOO” from their two-year-old in the back seat. Even if Jay Catanus, a church planter in Chicago who was the guest speaker, simply puts his arm … [Read more...]
From Anxiety to Alleluia: It Went Okay!
I was a nervous wreck. Even more so than usual my family would say! In the last several years God has brought some healing and help to my anxiety issues but there is still work to be done. We are all a work in progress right? And while I was so excited thinking about this long awaited dream for my youngest son coming true, I also woke up at night fretting about how things would go. Would … [Read more...]