I sat in my husband’s recliner reading a popular book for Christian women I had heard a lot about. Its message was one of grace and not expecting perfection from ourselves or others. But one of her illustrations caused me to put it down and not read another page. She was pregnant and had gotten…
Jesus said to Simon, “Push out into deep water and let your nets out for a catch.” Simon said, “Master, we’ve been fishing hard all night and haven’t caught even a minnow. But if you say so, I’ll let out the nets.” It was no sooner said than done—a huge haul of fish, straining the…
For the Lord will be your confidence, and will keep your foot from being caught. Proverbs 3:26 When my 17 year old son Charlie was about five, I helped him in so many different ways. At this point in our autism journey, we were really just trying to survive. I had a daughter who was…
The day after Easter. The day after we celebrate Christ’s empty tomb. The day after the celebration is a different sort of day. On the day after Easter, parents often struggle to connect the dots between serving a risen Savior and caring for kids with special needs. On the day after Easter, the gap between…
I heard an old hymn rearranged in a new way recently, and it deeply touched me. The words so powerful, so amazing, impacted me in a new way. The song had been introduced with the harrowing story of the songwriter, Horatio Spafford, and how against all the odds he was able to write such amazing words….
We’ve been coping with the chaos and change that construction work brings. Three new houses are being built on our road. Every day as we come and go from our house, we have to walk through the construction site. When there is a delivery truck or large vehicles are moving materials, we are escorted through…
As a speech-language pathologist, my training has allowed me to help countless children develop verbal speech or alternative communication methods. I have listened to families express their desire to hear their child communicate or participate in their family routines. I know how these families feel, because I have experienced it myself. My own child with…
April is Autism Awareness Month, but at this point is there anyone not aware of autism? While most people are aware it exists, I’m often surprised at what people don’t know about autism. Maybe you have been too. Since James’s autism diagnosis in 2010, I’ve been asked lots of questions about the cause of his…
Down syndrome became part of my everyday vocabulary back in 2006 after my daughter, Jaycee, was born. It was a doctor in a NICU who first explained that Down syndrome would result in an Intellectual Disability, developmental delays, and certain physical characteristics for our daughter. The doctor painted a picture that was bleak and discouraging…
I decided to wear my oldest pair of tennis shoes. When putting them on I noticed an area by my right big toe that had begun to show a lot of wear, but I hadn’t noticed the full extent of that. Walking through puddles and in the rain, I began to notice that my right…