One of my favorite benefits of running Not Alone (a website for parents of children with special needs), is that I get to interact with leading writers in the special-needs community. Kathy Bolduc is one of those writers I’m privileged to be learning from. Her newest book, The Spiritual Art of Raising Children with Disabilities,…
Last night we went to Chili’s for dinner (yay for free kids’ meal coupons!). We go early so we can get a booth because it’s easier to keep James in a booth than in a chair. And he did a great job being in the booth, just not necessarily sitting in the booth. He had…
Last week James had oral surgery: one tooth pulled, two baby root canals, and six teeth capped. He did great, but it wasn’t fun. This week we took him to a new doctor and he had to put on a hospital gown again. He was automatically suspicious and repeated, “It’s time to go please” before…
I’m at Not Alone today, talking about getting away from using the word “but” when talking about James and his autism … When my son James was first diagnosed with autism, I was stuck in a world of buts. I would tell the teenager I was calling to see if she could babysit, “He has…
Some days I grow weary from the same-ness. From teaching the same lessons. From working on the same goals. From hearing the same mistakes. Every day feels the same. Like Habakkuk, I want to cry out “O Lord, how long … ?” (1:2). My son is six-years-old and I’m still changing his diapers, still lining up…
When the neighbors peered at the baby John and asked “What then will this child be?” they had no idea the path he would travel. But, Luke 1:66 tells us, “the hand of the Lord was with him.” The hand of the Lord is with your child, too. Our kids are different. We can either see…