Elmer

Let me introduce you to Elmer! He is the newest member of our family. Our Elmer has a red plaid shirt on. He lives in a brown box and loves to sing...My name is Elmer and I love the Lord. My name is Elmer and I love the Lord, He is the greatest and He saved my soul.. My name is Elmer and I love the Lord. Al with an Elmer southern drawl.

Elmer is my new toy so to speak. We purchased him and have no intention of having our church reimburse us. The kids love him. I have completely enjoyed creating a personality for him. For those that do not know I am the children's ministries director at our church. I teach children's church on Sunday mornings and on Sunday evenings we have Adventure Kids Club and I teach that too. Since being laid up with my knee problems I have been getting all kinds of ideas to enrich the lives of our kids. Another ministry we will be starting as soon as I can get back to teaching will be a kids worship team. They will be learning how to play hand bells while participating during our worship/song service.

Anyway, Elmer is so much fun. His head is at least 2 feet in length. I am doing a lot of practicing with him. We purchased his legs so he can sit on my lap as well. His head is pretty heavy so every now and then he just goes to sleep (my arm starts aching bad! anyone that has done puppets will understand just how bad it can get! well imagine it at its worse. His head is that heavy!)

Elmer has become a great social friend with Kristofer. Kris really lights up when Elmer wakes up and comes out of his home (box). It's easier to talk to the puppet than to me sometimes. All the kids love Elmer and I can't wait to introduce him to the kids at church.

I talked with Kristofer's OT today about his behavior at home. I wanted to make sure he wasn't having problems at school with aggression and crashing into things and people. I got some great reports! YEA! He has learned to tie his gym shoes in one day. I have never worked on this with him. His OT showed him a few times and he got it! His fine motor skills and pencil grip has improved dramatically. All great news!

At his IEP meeting back in Dec it was suggested that we have Kris evaluated for autism. He seems to be borderline with his behaviors and social issues. Well this is nothing new for us. But to be honest I just haven't been ready to hear a diagnosis. Sean and I have been discussing it alot and I just asked Jennifer today point blank what do you think. Naturally she made sure to say that she is not a professional that diagnoses this type of thing but because Kris is so much like many of her autistic students that she works with she thinks he may be and highly recommended that we get him evaluated. SO that is what we are going to do. Just as soon as I am able to get out of the house on my own and we get our doctor situation fixed. We are in between doctors right now. It's a long story and unless you want details I would rather not discuss it on here.

AUTISM what does that mean? This is what wikipedia.org states: Autism is a brain development disorder that impairs social interaction and communication, and causes restricted and repetitive behavior, all starting before a child is three years old. This set of signs distinguishes autism from milder autism spectrum disorders (ASD) such as Asperger syndrome.

Its just a word, really. You see the Bible says He who began a good work in you is faithful to complete it. I am standing on that fact! I believe that regardless what a doctor may tell us that Kris is perfectly made and that God has a purpose and a plan for his life. I believe that God has been and will continue to heal Kristofer and one day he will be standing before a crowd of people giving God the praise for his complete healing! Kristofer is an amazing kid! Yes everyday is different. A few years ago he was fixed on dinosaurs. We ate, breathed and lived dinosaurs. The kid knows more about dinosaurs than anyone I know. He knew things way before we even let him watch educational tapes Discovery tapes on dinosaurs. He just blew us away with what he knew. He couldn't say basic words clearly like cat or dog but he could say brontosaurus and other long dinosaur terms. Now he is fixed on Transformers. So much so that he everything is about Transformers. I say this to share about yesterday.

Yesterday we surprised the kids with small little toys. Eli and Sara had birthday money they wanted spend and both wanted to share it with the older two boys. So Eli picked out Transformers for himself and Kristofer. Inside one of the packages was a advertiser with other Transformer products. Well Kris found one that he wants. So he gets dressed, gets his shoes and coat on and says come on mom lets go get it. Like I can just get up and go! Needless to say it took me almost an hour and a half to calm him down when I told him we couldn't go. SO today he comes home from school and for 3 hours he keeps saying, "Lets go to store and get my toy!" Now we don't just buy our kids things all the time. We just happen to have our tax check and wanted to bless our kids. It took me all 3 hours to get him to understand that we were not going to just go buy this toy that costs $30. He will have to wait till his birthday. Well then we had to get the calendar out and he says that is too long, it's making me tired. No I told him, He is making ME tired.

Now the little guy is laying next to ME. He is sick. Threw up all over the living room carpet. Then after he had gone to bed while sleeping proceeds to do it again. Now he is laying on towels on my bed and has thrown up 3 more times. Poor Sean had to give him a bath. Good bonding time for them.

A song comes to mind....

My Redeemer Lives

Eugene Greco

My Redeemer lives and I will see His glory as He works all things
Together for my good.
Whatever things occur of this I can be sure, I know my Redeemer lives.
(Repeat)

Even though I walk through the valley, I will fear no evil He is with me.
And on the battlefield, although the pain is real, my struggles soon will fade as His glory is revealed.
(Repeat chorus twice)