We are now part of the Key Ministry family and all our new content will be featured there. We'll leave this site up as a resource and hope you'll join our team of writers at our new home. … [Read more...]
Every Child Welcome: Cooking Up Special Needs Inclusion
Katie Wetherbee and I first met at a special needs ministry conference around 2010. She made a beeline to my book table and introduced herself. I attended Katie’s workshop and loved what she had to say. Before the end of the conference, we exchanged email addresses. We quickly became good friends. Maybe because we had a lot in common. We were both the parents of kids with special needs. We … [Read more...]
Learning How To Say No . . . and When To Say Yes
Perhaps you can relate to emails and voice mails like these that I’ve gotten: “Mrs. Wallin? Hi, this is Marion from the school. We need some things for the holiday party in class tomorrow. Will you bring [something that takes more hours than you’ve got in the day to prepare]?” “Hi Laurie, this is Andie. Someone stepped down from this task at church. Can you fill in for a few [years] … [Read more...]
Organized Caregiving: Oxymoron or Goal for a New Year?
Organized caregiving. An oxymoron if ever there was one, right? And certainly not the stuff from which to craft a doable New Year's resolution, right? Well, yes. And no. Organized caregiving may seem like an oxymoron when life is a whirlwind of doctor's appointments, melt downs, therapies, IEP meetings, diet restrictions, and day-to-day demands of caring for a loved one of any age. But being … [Read more...]
Build Upon Strength Instead of Weakness
If only I had read this book early in my teaching career. That was my thought as I turned the last page of Kristine Barnett's book, The Spark: A Mother's Story of Nurturing, Genius, and Autism. Her tale of her two-year-old son's autism diagnosis, his downhill slide into silence, and her decision to build upon strength in him rather than always remediating his weaknesses resonated with … [Read more...]
The Spiritual Art of Raising Children with Disabilities
I am so excited to share my new book, The Spiritual Art of Raising Children with Disabilities with you! Here is an excerpt from the Introduction, to give you an idea of what it's all about. It was written for you, dear reader! Henri Nouwen is one of the great spiritual teachers of my life. I never met him in person, but I knew him intimately through his books on the spiritual life and his … [Read more...]