awareness...

There seems to be a trend within the special needs community online

and it really bothers me.

I see parents filming their children at their worst and sharing it on social media

or getting online and talking about it to the open world of Facebook.

Here is the thing that bothers me most about this;

It totally disrespects the child's privacy.

Would you want someone filming you falling apart?

Filming you just when you are at your lowest and then sharing it with the world?

I get it, parents need/want support.

There is nothing wrong with that need

but there is something 

SO

totally wrong about exploiting your child in order

to fill that need/want.

Venting to a few trusted people

is perfectly fine...

Sharing your child's struggles with the world

not... so... much....

Parents, please think before you raise "awareness" at your child's 

expense.

Both Explained AND Defined...

The only label I wear and wear proudly is that of a child of God.

I am a Christian and my life is in His hands.

It is my definition and it is my explanation.

It is all that I am and all that I wish to be

A child of the Great and Good Lord.

I would ask you... examine your heart dear friend

are you also a child of God?

Do you believe with your heart of hearts that He is good?

Over the past several years our family has been through so very much

and I have had to come right down to this question

Do I believe it? 

Truly, this what I confess to believe...

Do I REALLY believe and agree

"His will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."?

I freely though sorrowfully admit that in the past few years I have wrestled,

struggled and fought 

at moments even doubted that He is truly working for my good,

there have been moments or even seasons when 

I have been angry or I have been indifferent..

But though every single moment of grappling

of straining and fighting to comprehend how He could truly love 

ME

one thing has not changed in my heart,

and that is that I trust Him.

I trust and know that my purpose in life, 

the only care I TRULY have in this world is that;

my every single breath is given to bring glory to 

my Lord in the life that HE has chosen for me.

I trust Him with it

I also trust Him with every emotion

and I know that my anger, fear and laughter are all

things that He has given me and He is a BIG God

who can handle them all and He is there when I cry out

ready to comfort my heart and soul with His love.

"The Lord your God is in your midst,

a mighty one who will save;

he will rejoice over you with gladness;

he will quiet you by his love;

he will exult over you with loud singing."

~Zephaniah 3:17~

I have lived quite some time with chronic pain

My back is destroyed

I have several problems with it so that simply walking has for the 

past several years, but most especially for the past 6 months

been an excruciating experience...

truly, I have a very high pain tolerance

but being able to function had come to almost a stand still

I held it together by day and dissolved into tears and torture by night...

I thought often of David when he wrote:

"I am weary with my moaning;

every night I flood my bed with tears;

I drench my couch with my weeping.

My eye wastes away because of grief;

it grows weak because of all my foes."

~Psalm 6:6-7~

But yet, even if the grief and pain

I hold tight, I hold tight to my belief that my God is good.

That

"His will be done on earth as it is in Heaven."

Almost a week ago I had a procedure done on my back

It won't fix my problems, for they are not fixable

but it will manage them and make me able to function again.

IF it worked

I can say with a slight apprehension that it appears to have worked

I am still incredibly sore from the actual procedure, 

but the pain I feel is different from the pain I was enduring daily

beforehand.

While I have been laid low resting and healing I found in my hands 

a precious little book which has been on my shelf for years but never

cracked open once.

"The children of Cloverly"

by, Hesba Stretton

This sweet little book is a gem, 

and over the past few days

 it has taken me on a journey with precious little Annie;

to ask me again.

Do I count it joy to do my Father's will?

Do I TRULY live out every single day?

"Your Kingdom come,

your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

I do... I so very truly do

even if I continue my life in great physical pain

I will count it joy to serve my Lord

and if I don't

I will count it joy to serve my Lord.

Do you count it a joy today? 

Do you TRULY trust His will to be done?

"When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears

and delivers them out of all their troubles.

The Lord is near to the brokenhearted

and saves the crushed in spirit.

Many are the afflictions of the righteous,

but the Lord delivers him out of them all."

~Psalm 34:17-19~

Autism; explanations are a beautiful thing

This month marks the one year anniversary of getting the autism diagnosis

for our Beans (9yrs old), June marks it for Princess Sparkles (12yrs old).

Having had a year to digest exactly what it means to now have a label

and how it effects our every day life

I thought I'd share a few of the things I've learned.

Something that I've come to realize is that while they won't lead "typical" lives

it doesn't mean that they lead "disabled" lives.

They aren't their label, they aren't their diagnosis

and I refuse to allow a diagnosis to define who they are.

Hence the title of my new writing home.

Having a diagnosis is a blessing, a HUGE blessing

although it brought with it such resounding grief when it was given

now a year later I see it more as an explanation

and a purpose.

We have an explanation now so we can help our kids conquer even more 

effectively than ever! 

As I tell them both OFTEN

"Your autism is not an excuse, it's a reason. 

Your autism doesn't hold you back, 

it's the fire you need to move forward; fighting twice as hard."

Meltdowns happen

systems get overstimulated

learning certain things comes harder

understanding social cues feels impossible

But I KNOW they can do it

Not because of my sheer will but because my autistic children are

BRILLIANT

in their own amazing ways

We navigate the meltdowns,

we give input to the senses or shield input as needed

we fight twice as hard to learn in creative ways

we watch and practice and talk it through

Because they CAN if we enable them.

It is such a beautiful thing to think that once you have the diagnosis you

can leave that "winter" behind.

the time of not knowing, second guessing and frustration

and suddenly a whole world opens up to you

your child is explained

and it's like spring is about to come anew!

To all the parents out there struggling, 

those with newly diagnosed children

educate yourselves, fight for your child and never ever

hold them back because of a label

Propel them forward in confidence because 

now you have a child who is 

Explained but not Defined!!!

Explained but not defined...

Many labels lay within our home

labels aren't enemies, they are helpful explanations

But above all, those explanations do not define 

who and what we are.

They give us our starting point to become all that the Lord

has for us to become as lights shining for His glory in this fallen world.

I start afresh on a new blogging journey... 

On this new blog I will share with you

encouragement and examples from my own walk with the Lord

the every day REAL life of a wife and mom

who lives with Hashimotos thyroiditis causing hypothyroidism

and chronic back pain.

A mom to 7 kids

Some adopted, some biological

ALL my own 

A mom to some seriously special kiddos 

with Autism, Sensory processing Disorder and a variety

of other cognitive and learning disabilities.

We've struggled through, asthma, epilepsy and more...

A mom with a seriously tender heart who has learned

how to stand up and advocate.

oh and I am and an artist... 

Photography is my happy place.

Welcome to our new blog home

where I hope to share with you how every day we are being explained

but not defined by the diagnosis we've been given

Because our definition is this:

Therefore we have been buried with

 Him through baptism into death, 

so that as Christ was raised from the 

dead through the glory of the Father,

 so we too might walk in newness of life.

~Romans 6:4~