Unexpected. That's what I say when people ask how my summer's been. Not that I don't expect seasons to cycle and summer to come and go each year. It's just that I didn't expect to go in for a routine appointment with my own doctor and discover, after a half-dozen scans and tests, that I've got a fast-growing fibroid that may be malignant growing in my uterus. Or that I'd spend the past few … [Read more...]
Managing Our Own Special Needs: Perfectionism
You probably already know this, but the best way for your family to transform into psychos is to try to get them to church on time. And, when you're like us, raising kids with any kinds of special needs, the last 5 minutes before departure for church is the perfect time for your 10 year old to soil herself, deny it, and require United Nations-level negotiating skills to get her out of her beloved … [Read more...]
Special Needs Sleepovers {and God’s Outrageous Grace}
I don't have to tell anyone here that our special kids miss milestones their age peers take for granted. It's a fact of the lives we lead. There are diapers in 6th grade (or longer), learning to read years after they "should" (which means maybe never), and tantrums until only-God-knows when (we haven't hit the endpoint yet!) My hopes for something as superfluous as a slumber party for my 11 … [Read more...]
For When You Feel Like A Bad Parent
She sat there, big blue eyes brimming with tears, lip quivering. My five year old and I'd been sitting on the couch, reviewing her kindergarten sight words. She was having trouble sitting still, I had trouble giving grace. Why is it a struggle to teach my youngest child something so simple? Maybe it's because I've done the "prep for kindergarten" routine with her three older siblings … [Read more...]
You’re Going To Be Okay
"We can’t selectively numb emotion. Numb the dark and you numb the light." - Brene Brown It's a truth I wanted to unwrite that night. Sinking down onto the kitchen floor, a mob of emotions clamoring for dominance inside me: Humiliation. Exhaustion. Anger. Fear. All I'd wanted was to get some exercise (I know, I know, What's that??!). To skate around the local lake with my kids and provide a … [Read more...]
Keeping Calm When My Child Isn’t
She'd been ranting at me for 45 minutes. My muscles were tense. The ache in my shoulders crept up my neck and threatened to swallow my head whole. It wasn't me she was mad at. It wasn't even the trigger she ranted about that she was mad at. It was---almost always is---her mind spinning into Reactive Attachment Disorder and Bipolar Disorder lows. Moments full of obsessing over one … [Read more...]