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...]
Lessons from a Children’s Hospital
Lessons from a Children's Hospital aren't lessons any of us really want to learn. They are the lessons best learned from textbooks rather than in the field. I wish that was the case here. No such luck. After Evan's most recent stay at the hospital I took from it some things that were more than just medical. It taught me a hospital stay is more than meets the eye. For us, an emergency trip to … [Read more...]
Don’t Shut Dad Out
We women are notorious for doing it... We complain that we need help, but then we are critical of our husbands when they lend a hand. Raise your hand if you've ever done it. I'm raising mine too! Mentoring other parents like myself over the years, I see this as a repeated issue between husbands and wives. Yet, I don't think mothers realize how much they shut their husbands out of the … [Read more...]
Even in the Hard Times
This past Saturday, as we prepared to leave for the farmer's market, my husband and I received the heart-breaking news that Audrey, a young woman with autism who lives at Safe Haven Farms with our son Joel, died unexpectedly on Friday. In her mid-20’s, Audrey was a larger than life kind of gal. She loved to dress up, loved all things Disney, and rarely used her “indoor voice.” A beautiful young … [Read more...]
The Length of Love
Love has no dimensions. It cannot be measured, boundless as it is. But I have felt lately that perhaps length is the best of all love’s rough estimates. What are the lengths to which someone goes for love? How long does love last, how far through difficulty will it carry us? How far behind us will it trail after we’ve left this world behind? What is the length of love? I give up nearly every … [Read more...]
You Are Not a Failure
“I feel like such a failure, I mean, I’m trying to do everything I can to get services for my son but I’m not getting anywhere. His behaviors are getting so challenging. It’s just been….hard. My house is a mess, I forgot to pay for a school field trip, we ran out of clean underwear and my husband and I are fighting all the time.” She sits across from me at Panera with a bread bowl, she stirs the … [Read more...]