Hebrews 12:12-13

From the book "Faith-Shaped Kids." Can't help but think of the future I am helping shape for my young children. "So take a new grip with your tired hands, stand firm on your shaky legs, and mark out a straight, smooth path for your feet so that those who follow you, though weak and lame, will not fall and hurt themselves, but become strong." -Hebrews 12:12-13 (TLB) ♥ this!!!

Sleepy Lil Boy

Bless his heart...he fell asleep on the couch (mind you, he never falls asleep on the couch). While this may seem like one more random picture of some parents sleeping child, to me it shows just how hard of a worker he is. He had a long day of various therapies followed by a haircut which he hates due to some of his sensory issues and then a trip to a store, which can be interesting in itself at times. Being on the outside, I can't even begin to imagine what life is really like for him but what I do know is that he shows such great strength and bravely each and every day that he gets out of bed with a smile on his face. This beautiful little boy works twice as hard as most people do just to try and lead a normal life that is on par with today's standards. I will continue to prayer for healing in his little body every single day of my life!

ABA/Potty Training

We just finished our 3rd ABA therapy session with our new provider and I really like the direction in which he is going with Connor. Granted, I didn't realize that we weren't getting the proper care with our last provider until we were 3 months in and now I see exactly what care we should have been receiving from the start. I am super impressed with how well he connects with Connor! At the moment, Paul and I are in the beginning of our parent training so that we can all be on the same page when addressing situations with Connor. I can see how beneficial this is even with neurotypical kids like Addison. I have no doubt that she (okay, maybe we) will reap the benefits from it too! It was made known yesterday too that our new therapist would like to help us potty train Connor. As you can imagine, I am ecstatic!!!!! I really haden't put a whole lot of thought to the whole situation just because I wasn't sure it was 'that time' but he assures me that it is possible. We plan to start as soon as parent training is done with. =)

Father's Day

I told Connor to say "Happy Father's Day" to his daddy and he said, "Happy Farter's Day." Love that kid!!!!

A Beautiful Testimony

"Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly." -anonymous. It amazes me how God allows us to walk through some tough times to force us to grow and just when we think we are at the end and it couldn't get any harder or we can't go on, something absolutely amazing happens. We turn into this beautiful testimony for everyone to see. I am one very blessed woman! =)

Shoes, shoes, shoes

So, I am not sure what to think of the fact that every time I find Addison over by the shoe bin, she is pulling shoes out by pairs. She is 12 months old...can this really be possible at this age? Mind you, with Connor, I was under the impression that his childhood development was "typical" until he was about 18 months old. We had Addison receive a full developmental evaluation by ECI (Early Childhood Intervention) when they wanted to see her for low muscle tone and her delay in gross motor skills. At the time, they told us that she was at a 17 month cognitive level. Is this why she is pairing shoes or should I be watching her closely from here on out to watch for those signs I saw with Connor?

On a good note, she was ONLY 2 months behind with gross motor and speech on the day of that eval which was around May 23rd. I have already started seeing a ton of progress so I am curious to see where she scores on her 15 month developmental questionnaire.

New ABA to start soon!

Connor's ABA eval went great! Our new therapist looks VERY promising. Super excited to see big changes!!!! God is sooo soooo good!

Cuddle Time

"Little boy of few words" just came into the kitchen to inform me that he wanted to cuddle. How do I say no to that?!? ;)

Milk Money

When we give to God, I believe wholeheartedly that he gives back in ways that are meaningful to us and bless us. It doesn't necessarily have to come back monetarily but he DOES give back. The milk we buy for Connor gets expensive FAST and in the last week, I have come across 16 coupons for his milk and some of them even double up. I wasn't even trying to find these things because they don't pop up often. God has definitely saved my family a chunk of money. ;)

Addi's One Year Appt

So at my daughter's one year appointment, we were told that she is almost 23 lbs!! She is over that birth weight x3 average I hear about all the time. I guess that the growth curve is supposed to start leveling off somewhere around 9 months, or so we were told and her's hasn't. Suppose this means she will be tall like her grandpa? ;) All I keep picturing is in the next year, her towering over Connor and taking him down to the ground when they play.

Philippians 4:11-13

I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. -Philippians 4:11-13

Good eatin'

I have no doubt that my daughter and I will be forever friends because of her love for good food. Her and I shared some super yummy Mexican food this evening.

Playtime

Pretend play is a hard concept for Connor to understand with his diagnosis but I guess he has been watching me closely the last couple days while Addison and I play. She has a baby doll that we pretend to feed together. Connor decided today that he wanted to ask the baby if she wanted milk and then proceeded to feed her. So precious. At that moment, ironically enough, I found Addison on the other side of the room, driving toy cars into Mack (The semi truck from the movie Cars) that Connor plays with a lot. I guess she has been paying attention too. ;) I ♥ being a mom!

Dino talk

I just caught Connor playing with his dinosaurs who are now 'talking' to each other. One told the other, "I love you. Good night." Then they lied down next to each other on the pillow. ;) This is coming from a kid who barely knew how to request milk 5 months ago and didn't take any part in imaginative play. I am amazed at how far he has come. Thank you, God, for allowing me to see another part of Connor's personality. =)

The day I filled everyone in on the news...

Dear Family & Friends-

I have decided that it is finally time to sit down and write you all a letter. I have yet to find my address book seems the movers buried it really well in a box that is probably in the garage and has yet to be unpacked. So, instead of the old fashioned snail mail way, I am going with Facebook.

For the last year or so, I had started noticing a slight delay in some of his development (this started around the time he was 18 months old). I had started wondering if I had done something wrong as a parent but at the same time, I was doing the best I could with the situation at hand and Paul in Korea. Given that Paul was gone, I started to think that maybe he didn’t get enough attention, knowing full well that he did or that I wasn’t teaching him correctly but at the same time he was picking up on basic pre-k things such as reciting the entire alphabet before the age of 2, recognizing all upper and lower case letters, memorizing the letter sounds like it was nothing. He also could recognize and name all colors, shapes, etc. When I took him in for his 2 year checkup, I was told based on my answers to an age and development questionnaire that he was right on track and that I had nothing to worry about. It was then again at another appointment for a checkup with his ears that I mentioned my concerns again. It was yet again that I was told he was fine. By this time, I felt like that “paranoid” mom who was worrying too much. As time passed, I couldn’t shake that gut feeling and I started to notice him falling further and further behind in his speech and noticing that he was throwing a lot of fits and having more and more meltdowns in public when we would go places. It had finally reached a point when I couldn’t even go to the grocery store without it being a production. In fact, I felt like I couldn’t go anywhere. This became increasingly worse towards the end of this last summer and I kept getting told by people that he was going through the “terrible 2’s.” I refused to believe that was the case. I mean, doesn’t every parent want to believe that they raised a perfect and obedient child?! Well, I guess I was in denial and ignored the comments. I have done my best to raise my son to love Jesus, use his manners, not hit, kick, bite, etc. and he had done a great job at it. He is a very happy little boy but I just knew something wasn’t right. Again, as more time went by, he was becoming even more difficult. It was one day that as I watched him playing and thought, “I wonder if he is autistic…” I then contacted his old pediatrician whom is now a good friend of mine and asked her what she thought. Her son is autistic so she knew what questions to ask me and based on my answers, she suggested I have him checked out. I very quickly got an appointment (at that time, we had just a few weeks before we were moving and it was crunch time). His new pediatrician finally took the time to listen to my concerns as something more than just a mom being paranoid. She also suggested he be seen by someone for this so they could do an evaluation before I left. I was then referred to a pediatric behavioral/developmental specialist 4 days before we moved. We spent 4 gut-wrenching hours in his office doing various tests and questionnaire’s and it was at that time that I was given the heartbreaking news that “99% of individuals with autism display similar behaviors as Connor.” He was not only autistic but he has what is called ‘Sensory Processing Disorder.’ This refers to the way the nervous system receives messages from the senses and turns them into appropriate motor and behavioral responses. If you don’t know much about it, I encourage you to do the research. The cause of his meltdowns had nothing to do with him being a disobedient or stubborn child, he just couldn’t process things the way I could. My stomach had sunk. All I could think was, “This can’t be happening to us.” I felt a small sense of relief to know that I was a great parent as everyone had told me before and I had done nothing wrong to cause it but I was still heartbroken to know that life for my son would be very difficult from here on out. From there, I got to go home and fill Paul in on the diagnosis over Skype. As you can imagine, I think he took it harder being that he was away and wasn’t around to see the subtle changes in our son occur over time like I had. It’s been very difficult for us to deal with but we try to remember that it is in God’s hands and I personally have high hopes that one day my son will be able to look me in the eyes and for the first time, say, “I love you, mommy” or even go to a school where they treat him ‘normal.’ I have been told time and time again, “God won’t give you more than you can handle,” and I believe whole heartedly that this is true. The last few years have been very difficult for us as a family with Paul gone so much, but it has strengthened us in ways we never imagined. I have no doubt in my mind that God carried us through it all and I have no doubt now that he will continue to do so. As of now, we have been living in Texas for approximately a month and have been to countless appointments for Connor to get everything set up for therapy which still won’t start for another 4-6 weeks. Most likely, he will be in therapy 5 days a week and we will be one very busy family. I am sorry that it has taken me so long to discuss this but from what I’ve been told, we had to get through the ‘grieving’ process first. It is my hope that you would keep our family in prayer. I try to remember that every day is a new day for us that has plenty of room for growth and improvement for both my son and our family.
If any of you should have questions, feel free to ask but please know that this is still a sore subject for us. I would appreciate that you be respectful of our situation and if you would like to talk, for now, you can email me at 2rexkids@gmail.com.

Thank you in advance for your support and prayers,
Amber