Just a Loose Nut

The past week has been rather eventful.
~First, Hope comes down with that flu everyone’s been talking about.
~Then a hawk crashes into the window on my screen door. Leaving lots of yucky bird blood and feathers.
~Later I get attacked by a pigeon on steroids in my breezeway.
~Next a radiator starts leaking.
~Then Rhema comes down with that [...]

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Sleep Deprived EEG

Update: Rhema is sick with the flu. EEG cancelled!
Rhema will have a sleep deprived EEG Tuesday morning.
That means I have to keep her up all night tonight and then drive her into Boston for her EEG, during which time they expect her to sleep.
A couple years ago when Rhema did her first BEAM study at Children’s [...]

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So Be It

As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” John 9:1-3

When Rhema 2.5 [...]

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Allergyville

Hope has severe food allergies. So I was glad to make it through the Halloween hype and abundance of chocolatey, nutty candy without a trip to the emergency room.
We’ve had a string of infractions lately that have added a few more gray hairs. Talk about learning to trust God with my children…
Every time I leave her [...]

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Smelly Pebbles

For the past two months women from the church have faithfully shown up on my doorstep to offer their help. Every Saturday, one or two women set aside a few hours just to spend time with me and the girls, assisting in any way they can.
I am very blessed, yes?
Note: If you are ever reluctant to attend [...]

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Crisis Intervention

“[This is the story] of a woman’s devotion to the child who is both her burden and God’s singular way of smiling on her…” Jewel, Bret Lott

I recall reading in Susan Senator’s book Making Peace with Autism about going through periods of crisis with your child, and how some crises can be so difficult that there’s [...]

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unedited

written a couple years ago, still true today
 
God, I really want to know what you have to say about autism.
Can’t communicate
Can’t relate
Learns differently, “hard to teach”
Seizures in the brain, gut issues
When is she hurting?
Wish everyone knew what this was like
for a day, for a night
So hard to be here
Sensory sensitivities
Out of order
Alone, cannot share
Pain
Torment, stim, stim, [...]

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Homecoming

I’m waiting for a call.
A call to say that he has arrived safely in Kuwait.
Even as he goes out, I am already thinking of his coming in.
I think back to five years ago when a handful of spouses gathered in an old gymnasium in Katterbach, Germany in the dark of night. There were babies and [...]

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More Extraordinary

It’s 2:30 am and she’s shrieking and running circles in her room. I sit up in bed, realizing that she’s been doing it for at least a half hour. Got to get there, I think as I groggily rush down the cold hallway, before she goes to the bathroom on the floor.
As I open [...]

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Excuse Me

 
I expect my girls to be polite and mannerly.
Hope, however, surprises me with her bathroom humor. I didn’t teach her any of it, so I’m always startled (and amused) by the stuff she comes up with while sitting on the potty.
Like many children, she seems to think the passage of gas is just about the [...]

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