Did you know there's an antidote to discouragement? And it works almost immediately, if we can only remember to pull it out of our spiritual tool kits and use it! What is it? Praise! Some of you may be thinking, Really? You don't know what our family is facing on a daily basis! I get it. Sometimes I feel like my prayers for healing within my family (autism, bipolar disorder, traumatic … [Read more...]
Wholeness Does Not Mean Perfection: It Means Embracing Brokenness
I can’t tell you how many times, over my 32 year journey with autism, I have returned to this quote for inspiration: On July 4, 1999, a twenty-minute maelstrom of hurricane force winds took down twenty million trees across the Boundary Waters. A month later, when I made my annual pilgrimage up north, I was heartbroken by the ruin and wondered whether I wanted to return. And yet on each visit … [Read more...]
Prayer Power
Ask, and it will be given to you seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. Matthew 7:7 There are so many Scriptures on prayer power. The Scripture above just happens to be one of my favorites. I don’t know about you, but I pray and pray and pray for my son, Joel, who has autism. Many times I do not see specific answers to those prayers. And yet, the Scriptures … [Read more...]
A Day Program Without Walls
A beautiful fall day, colors exploding all around us as Joel and I drive through the sleepy college town of Oxford, Ohio. I'm lost in thoughts about the “day program without walls” we're building for Joel, when Joel’s voice interrupts the anxious flow of what I'm thinking. “Look! The trees are falling!” I'm too immersed in thoughts of what seems like an impossibility to go through the … [Read more...]
Paradigm Shift in the ER
Paradigm shift: “A time when the usual and accepted way of doing or thinking about something changes completely” (The Cambridge English Dictionary). I don’t know about you, but God often shifts my paradigm of disability when I least expect it. It was a Sunday morning. I’d been laid flat with a flu-like virus for four days. I woke up that morning determined to get up and go to church with my … [Read more...]
Double the Fun
It seems a strange thing to be grateful for, but I’m thankful both boys are on the spectrum. Not every day. But most days. Weird, right? But I get good things in twos: Both boys love to slam each other on the ground, on each other, on the bed. They love the pressure of their daily matches, and neither one complains that the other is being too rough. That’s because short of a puncture wound, … [Read more...]