From the parades to celebrate the Chicago Cubs for winning the World Series for the first time in 108 years and “participation trophies” for you name the sport, there are plenty of ways to honor big and small accomplishments. There are cap-and-gowns and life-will-change-forever speeches to kindergarteners earning ribbons for tying their shoes. Honor, though, is more than…
Splink 1: Invisible, Yet Real Write each of the following on a slip of paper (air; atoms; electricity; sound waves; feelings; angels; etc.). Ask family members to play 20 questions—except shorten it to 10 questions. Invite a volunteer to pick a slip of paper and the others will ask him/her questions, which can be answered…
“How do you deal with the possibility that you could be a ‘forever mom,’ that is, that Polly and Evangeline may never leave home?” a young mom asks me after I finish sharing our family’s story with her MOPS group. I get this question often. It makes sense. I have children with special needs. We are…
I can’t help but reflect upon how different our parenting journey was from theirs. Our first child was born in 1982. Hours after our son’s birth when he was diagnosed with a life-threatening birth anomaly, every expectation we had for him and for ourselves as parents crumbled. Other parents were choosing which kind of diapers…
Right now, people seem inscrutable, rhetoric is flammable, the world looks combustible. But these kids of mine, they put everything in perspective. My darling kids, the ones with developing body odor and dirty rooms and expertise in sibling attack strategies a la Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. They are a respite from everything upside down, and is…
As a podcast co-host for the show, Paying Ridiculous Attention to Jesus, I often get questions about how to connect more with Jesus. Lots of them deal with prayer requests and going through hard stuff, but then there’s this question: Becky, the Bible is sooo boring and hard to understand—any tips for reading it?…
Note: each month we’re giving parents of seniors a spiritually encouraging “checklist” to capture the best moments from senior year. Sign up to automatically get a full year’s worth of memory-making ideas, plus these articles as monthly emails HERE. November: Finding gratitude in the midst of crunch time You may not quite…
How To Teach Our Children to Be Brave My two children are very different in many ways, and one of their differences is their sense of reality versus fantasy. Tuck has a pretty black-and-white approach to life, and he can tell what is real and what is not. Movies and books are easy…
I read a blog yesterday from a mother of a child with Down syndrome. “I love my daughter but I’m not ready to celebrate Down syndrome.” I just want to say that I hear you. And I validate you. Sometimes in our special needs circles certain types of people are pushed forward as spokespeople. You’ve…
This fall, ABC debuted a new series about a special-needs family. 7.29 million people tuned in the first week to meet the DiMeo family—Maya (played by Minnie Driver) her husband Jimmy, and their kids JJ, Ray, and Dylan. Show creator Scott Silveri drew from his experiences growing up with an older brother with a disability,…