Our newest grandchild arrived at the end of January. She's 8 1/2 pounds and 20 1/2 inches of pure snuggle sprinkled with dark, curly hair. Because her parents and brother live in the apartment below us, we see and hold her almost every day. Her life thus far has been free of special needs or disabilities, other than tummy distress and a nasty diaper rash after her mommy ingests soy. Even … [Read more...]
Loving our kids as we love ourselves?
People look at you and say, “I don’t know how you do it,” and you aren’t quite sure what they are talking about. You just did what was necessary. You learned about sensory integration, drug interactions, reflex integration, nutritional therapies, coffee enemas, methylation, verbal behavior training, brain gym, and a host of other things, just to help your child take one step forward... (excerpt … [Read more...]
I Get to Do THIS!
I didn’t always say that on our special needs journey. I remember days when our son was young (now 37) that I wanted to quit, didn’t always like what I had to do, didn’t really think I could continue serving and caring and surrendering my wants and needs for his…and honestly, if God would have stood before me and asked, “Would you like Me to heal him right now?” “YES,” would have been out of my … [Read more...]
The Sprinkled Blessings of Living with Autism
One snowy Saturday my fourteen-year-old son Joel and I bundled up to visit Janet, a friend just home from the hospital. Eight short weeks before, Janet had a stare-down with death and won. Joel didn’t really know Janet. She was an old friend of mine who lived out of town during much of his childhood. When she moved back to Cincinnati, we only saw each other once or twice a year. And yet, “Let’s … [Read more...]
Doing Things Differently … Again
As a mom to a son with autism, I'm no stranger to doing things differently. We learned a "new normal" even before he was diagnosed, even though it took years to come to terms with it. (That's a whole other story.) But along the way, our "new normal" kept changing. And now, our "normal" is waaaaay different than how we started. It's not completely unlike what parents of non-special needs kids … [Read more...]
Every Believer’s Loneliness Ministry
Loneliness. Every school day of my childhood I saw it written on Dad's face when Mom, my siblings, and I hurried out the door. Even now, I close my eyes and can see him sitting in his wheelchair at the kitchen table, sipping coffee through a straw and waving good-bye. His grin couldn't hide his dread of spending another day with only the television to keep him company. In fact, Dad's face came … [Read more...]