Shew what a day!

It started with Hubs getting the deer. 

Then, about 230, my son’s school called. He fell on the playground and hurt his arm and wanted me to come get him. He usually rides the bus. I brought him home because he was able to open and close his fist and lift his arm. When my husband removed E’s sweatshirt, we could see his left elbow was badly swollen. So, Hubs took him to the ER while I stayed home with our daughter.

In the end, he has a fracture and may require surgery. I will call the orthopedic surgeon tomorrow to make an appt for him to check it out and make the final surgery decision.

Poor baby. He stepped on a nail a couple of weeks ago and now this. Hardly a dull moment around here! 

50s Day and a Painful Step

My little guy had a big day.

First, he dressed up in 50s style for the 50th day of school.

Posing with his friend who also goes to our church.

Then he came home, changed into his muck boots and proceeded to play outside. A few minutes later I hear a wail. Poor fella stepped on a nail that went through his boot and into his foot.

Praise God there wasn’t much blood but it’s still quite painful. He’s up to date on his tetanus shot. Naturally he’s concerned about being able to trick or treat on Monday. 🙂

A mom’s musing

When you are the mother of a special needs child, people tend to advise and question every decision you make about said child. The same is true for home school moms. 

So, imagine my life as I home school a special needs child. My reasons are many and multi-layered. 

Most people mean well  (and some are just bossy know-it-alls), but sometimes we need less criticism that is dressed up as advice and more encouragement and emotional support.  Most of all, we need your prayers and kind words.  

Parenting is a monumental task by itself, and not to be taken lightly. Having a daughter that will likely never be independent and watching her miss out on the usual girly stuff and friendships can be heartbreaking. No sleepovers. No boyfriends.  No driver’s license. All of that makes me sad. The worse part though, is watching her struggle with the simplest of things. 

Having said all that, I know God is still on His throne.  He has a purpose for her and is even now using these struggles for all of our good, even if we can’t see it yet. 

He will feed His flock like a shepherd;
He will gather the lambs with His arm,
And carry them in His bosom,
And gently lead those who are with young. Isaiah 40:11

It’s not a big deal for most families

But for us to be able to go to the public pool and actually have fun with no incidents is such a huge blessing!  Furthermore,  I took both kids by myself.  

I seriously had thought our days of having fun as a family were over. …or at least on hold until Beauty got out of puberty.  

Today, though, we had a wonderful time together at the pool. Perhaps only parents of special needs kids can understand how overjoyed this makes me. 

The most wonderful news!

Today, on Father’s Day of all days, BOTH my children went forward to make their confessions of faith, ask Jesus to take away their sins, and be baptized.  Words cannot express how I feel.

You may recall my daughter is special needs. She does not fully understand what it’s all about, but SHE made this decision all on her own. No one prompted her or persuaded her and she did it independent of her brother. God knows her better than I do and we were not about to dissuade her, as she will likely never fully understand.

My son is 6 but he approached me and told me he wanted to “trust and obey Jesus and be baptized “. I asked him a few questions and he understood as well as anybody. My dad, the man in the video who baptized them, spoke with them both beforehand.

To say I’m proud would be an understatement.

Guess what

There are just some subjects this word does not describe or define. There ARE absolutes. Some things just aren’t “readily reshaped or pliable ” . Gender is one of them.
Deception is so great and so common nowadays, even children are encouraged to lie to THEMSELVES.
A 13 year old may be physically big enough to drive a car, but yet it is illegal for them to do so. It has been determined they have not yet reached the minimum level of maturity to operate a motor vehicle,  taking their own lives,  as well as the lives of others,  into their hands when they pull out onto a public road. Why then is it okay for a 6 year old to determine they are of a gender different from which they were born?  Because they know what they like and how they feel? Most 6 year olds  would also like to eat candy 3 times a day and brush their teeth with kool aid. It doesn’t mean we just let them. It sets them up for a lifetime of bad health and heart ache. So, why do we feel free to let Samuel become Samantha? This is a decision that will affect the rest of their lives and quite probably their eternity.

Not only is it irresponsible parenting, it is abusive. Yes, abusive. What are we really teaching them? If you feel inclined towards something, it is your right to obtain it? That there are no absolutes? Are you absolutely sure about that? Lol.
It could go much deeper than that. We are teaching them there is no God, no Creator, who formed them. And if there is, He made a mistake by giving you boy genitalia when you should have female.
This is a complex topic with eternal ramifications. It is NOT, however, FLUID.

Feds Push for Home Visits to Check on Parents

This is disturbing on every level. Having a special needs child, the government already is too involved in our home. This is bad news.

http://christianpatriots.org/2016/02/14/feds-push-new-plan-for-home-visits-to-check-on-parents/

I’m so stinkin’ proud!

I did not post much on Friday because we were busy as a family.

The highlight of the day concerns our daughter.  You may recall she is 12 and “special needs”. She has multiple diagnosis, all cognitive in nature. Physically she is healthy and strong-Praise the Lord-but her IQ was tested to be 55. In some ways, she is “further behind” than her 6-year-old brother. I use quotes because, while these labels are helpful in getting her the appropriate assistance, they do NOT define who she is as a cherished girl created by God. She faces many challenges and as both her mother and her home school teacher, I am challenged right along with her. The whole family is.

Anyway, one of her struggles is with sensory issues. On the one hand, she SEEKS deep pressure input and “hard work” (swimming, hanging from the monkey bars, shoveling are all good activities to help balance her nervous system), she also AVOIDS other stimuli such as loud crowds. A HUGE challenge we have is with her hair. Here is a picture from her 12th birthday:

That long, curly hair is a battleground! She cannot stand for anyone to touch her head/hair. Trying to shampoo it and then comb out the tangles is a war I reserve only for Saturday nights (for church the next day). It stays a horrible tangled mess the rest of the week. She has never been to a salon because 1. In the past, we didn’t want to disturb the beautiful blonde curls (she used to let me fix it) and 2. We figured some battles are better left at home and not out in public……..UNTIL TODAY! When we got ready to leave to do some shopping this morning, her hair was quite tangled. Her dad coaxed her into letting me try to do something with it, but it was really bad. We had had enough. We told her it would be best if we let someone cut it, just a little. Once she realized we didn’t mean as short as her dad and brother’s, she agreed.

So, finally, at 12 years old, she had her first visit to the salon!

She LOVED having her hair shampooed (who doesn’t?) and was so patient and cooperative during the entire process. She kept asking if she could come back! The stylist was very nice and understanding as well.

Here is her new, “grown-up” hairstyle that she now doesn’t want us to touch because we will “mess it up”. Hee Hee

The stylist straightened it in hopes it would give us a couple of days without tangles. However, after tonight’s bath it was a little damp and the curls came back. It was super cute with the curls too! She seems very happy with it and I am hopeful she will once again allow me to comb and style it, since it won’t be so painful.

I am so stinkin’ proud of this kid!!!!

Pray for my daughter

I want to ask my readers to please pray for my daughter.

She is ten years-old and struggles with cognitive delay, sensory processing, auditory processing and other “special needs”; in some ways she is very much a four-year-old.

Lately she has been saying things like, “Ask Jesus into my heart”. Every Christian parent wants to hear these words, but we are especially thrilled because I had prepared myself for the possibility she may never utter those words, because of her cognitive issues. I was never concerned about her salvation, because if she never mentally reaches the “age of accountability” or is incapable of understanding such things….she has an automatic ticket to Heaven, right?

Her words recently have touched me so.  I’ve spoken with her about sin and what Jesus did. She says, “(her name) doesn’t have to be nailed to a cross”. I say, “No, Jesus did it for us”. I am unsure how much she understands, about sin and needing to repent and the fact that trusting in Jesus as Savior and Lord…saves her from this thing called sin.

I am encouraged though. We have been told she is incapable of abstract thought and this is evidenced in that she never “gets” a joke and cannot answer a question that begins with “Why”. Perhaps she is simply repeating what she hears us say, what little bit she is able to process in Sunday school and church services. I do not know.

I do know, however, that she is cradled in Jesus’ arms and He is revealing Himself to her in ways He knows she can understand. Her trust in Him, as Protector, is growing. She asks me to “tell Jesus to keep coyotes out of my room”. We live in a rural area where coyotes live in the woods behind our house, literally within earshot. We are trying to teach her to ask Jesus for help when she feels “fussy”, episodes that are similar to an autistic child’s “meltdowns”.

So, dear readers, please pray for her to grow in her trust and love for Jesus. Pray for her as she struggles with being 10 in some ways and 4 or 5 in others. She wants so much to be independent, as most children her age do, and she cannot wait to drive a car. That is something I do not know she will ever do. She can drive a golf cart quite well, but I am not sure if she will ever pass the written exam necessary for a license. She reads at a kindergarten level. Whatever she can or cannot accomplish in the areas of independent living are below her relationship with Jesus, on our priority list. He has a plan for her, and I know He has extra special angels guarding her that see the Father’s face at all times.

I’ll close this post with my favorite verse:

He will feed His flock like a shepherd;
He will gather the lambs with His arm,
And carry them in His bosom,
And gently lead those who are with young. Isaiah 40:11

His promises are True.