It’s my birthday. What do I want, you ask? A little peace and quiet. That’s all. I want the fighting to stop, and the doors to stop slamming, and the dogs to stop barking, and the hollering for “can you bring me up a whatever” to just cease for a blasted minute, because kids are loud, and ours are louder. They are a next-level kind of loud. The loud of special needs and mental illness that … [Read more...]
Sleep Deprivation and Miracles
2:30am Being a mommy must also mean having super hero levels of hearing. From my room down the corridor, I hear the creaking of bedsprings, shuffling and … yes, a door opening. My heart sinks but I fight to hope: maybe it’s one of the other kids. All the lights in the corridor go on and there are pounding footsteps down the stairs, followed by more lights. I can now see the brightly lit backyard … [Read more...]
Different Just Like Me
It was a Thursday night, and I was sitting on the couch after dinner, watching the news. Noah slipped in from the kitchen and sat down next to me. A few times daily, Noah sidles in to check on me. While his ninja-level lurking usually scares me out of my skin (because, as he says, “Screaming makes my brain all fluttery”), Noah likes to periodically sense my mood and see what I’m doing. Noah … [Read more...]
The Goodbye Salute: Noah Transitions to Middle School
In the gymnasium at North Bend Elementary, a smallish school in a mostly agrarian county in northeast Maryland, we parents sat packed together in tight rows. We were prepping for a transition. In the front of the gym, on the floor, were rows of children from kindergarten through fourth grade. They were present as witnesses to this celebration of the fifth graders. Today, the school would laud … [Read more...]
Plagues of People, Safety in Numbers
Children on the autism spectrum usually fall in one of two camps when it comes to their feelings about crowds: crowds are either an audience or a plague. For Jesse, crowds are an audience. He loves to mug, and show off, and recite what he knows about things of no interest to the listener. For Noah, crowds are a plague. This makes it a challenge to plan a wedding when both boys are also a part … [Read more...]
Rescue from a Sea of Stress
This is a story of rescue from a sea of stress... As so often happens, the Scripture readings in today’s daily devotional don’t just speak to my heart, they SHOUT OUT LOUD. From Psalm 88: “I am overwhelmed with troubles…” My husband Wally and I have known for a few weeks that our 31-year-old son’s day program is closing its doors next March. Day programs that fit Joel’s unique … [Read more...]