It was a verbal game of chess. Winner takes all. If my son won the argument, we would return home. If I won, we would get out of the car and walk into the church. When John added a new reason why he didn’t want to go inside, I was sure he’d made a fatal mistake. He said he felt “stood up,” as he attended church each week. I countered with a correction, “’Stood up’ means showing up and no one is … [Read more...]
To Those Who Have Gone Before Us
I don’t know about you, but sometimes I get so focused on dealing with all the current crises in our family life that I don’t spend enough time reflecting on our blessings. Most notably, in our fight for progress with our children’s care now, we forget how fortunate we are to live at such a time as this. Not only are treatment breakthroughs of every kind occurring more rapidly, but the flow of … [Read more...]
Power In The Body of Christ
Have you ever had one of those days (weeks, months) where you just felt like giving up? Yup. I thought so. We all have days, weeks or months like that. Especially those of us who live with children or adults with significant disabilities. Our son Joel, who has autism, has been having a rough time lately. A hospitalization for depression last fall. A 6 week manic spurt this spring that … [Read more...]
The One Thing I Do Each Day to Stay Strong (And What Watching “The Middle” Has to Do with It)
You and I are in a battle and the stakes are high. A parent of a child with a special need faces overwhelming demands each day. There are therapy needs, educational needs, social needs… and these are just the needs of our child! We must also take care of our own adult needs including maintaining our home, our marriage, and our health... and more. We also have an enemy who would like nothing … [Read more...]
Love pushes us to the front of the crowd, reflecting on a dual diagnosis
Love pushes us to the front of the crowd, reflecting on a dual diagnosis I belong to a private Facebook group for parents who have kids with a dual diagnosis of Down syndrome and autism. I think of myself new to the autism world but in actuality, my fourth daughter Evangeline has held the diagnosis for, oh my goodness what has it been? Two years? Although I mostly lurk, the dual diagnosis … [Read more...]
ENGAGE or DISTRACT?
Thinking quickly on our feet begins to come naturally as a parent of a child with special needs. Even all these years later, we still do the same for our grown son! So often, even before something happens, we look ahead to how it might turn out in any given the situation. Then, there are the times something is happening in the very moment when we must make on the spot decisions that might help … [Read more...]