Let’s face it. If you’re raising a child with a disability, then your life is anything but typical. More like fragile, complex, overwhelming, exhausting. After battling the everyday challenges that never seem to leave you alone, there is not much left in the tank. You may also be in the situation where caring for your child for the rest of your lives is becoming more and more real. The older you … [Read more...]
Washing Windows
I’ve had conversations with three separate people this week regarding the way our perception of events either clouds our Kingdom vision, or clarifies it. I can’t think of a better word picture for this than washing windows. My husband and I live in the country, where farmers plow and plant and harvest. We also live on the highest point of the county, where the wind blows—a lot! Windows get … [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...]
The Angel of the Lord Encamps Around Those Who Fear Him
The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them.” Psalm 34:7 A dream image from years ago fills my mind’s eye as I sit in Lectio Divina with this verse. In the dream, a group of friends and I are gathered on lawn chairs in a horse-shoe shaped field, ringed on one end by houses. It is a beautiful night, the rural sky inky-black and star-studded; the summer air soft … [Read more...]
Autism Awareness Through the Eyes of Jesus
Autism awareness through the eyes of Jesus? During Autism Awareness Month, I like to remind myself and those who know and love someone with autism to look at that child or adult through the eyes of Jesus. Changing one's gaze explodes preconceptions and shifts paradigms in a powerful way. The following was written when my son Joel was ten years old. He is now 31. This is a vision I go back to, time … [Read more...]
The Googolplex of Disability, or, How Many Times I Have to Repeat Myself
I’m going to be honest. I took high school calculus because my best friend was taking it, and I needed to prove I was as smart as she was. I was very insecure, and what’s worse, I hated math. But I did get something good from all those numbers: a B- and a neat little tidbit: A “googol” is 10 to the power of 100. The “googolplex” is significantly larger: 10 to the power of a googol - 10googol, or … [Read more...]