Absent...

from blogging. The last few days, well actually since Friday night I have been tending to sick kids again. Not sure what in the world is going on but Friday night lets just say I had to change my clothes twice. The babies as we call them, even though they are 4 1/2 yrs old, one right after the other got sick all over me! If there is anything I can't stand its drool and a close second is the contents of a sick stomach! Specially if its all over me!

So as the weekend progressed, Sunday arrived and I was ready to teach the kids in children's church....but Sara was still weak from being sick and Eli was still very sick, not keeping anything down. "Poor little fella," as Sara says. Naturally Momma ends up with it too. YUCK! Thankfully I just had an upset stomach for 24 hours. But Eli, is still sick. We took him to the doctor today just to make sure there was no dehydration going on. Thankfully he is doing better tonight. Keeping everything in and was able to eat a few chips with his flat sprite. Which is great! The little guy lost 4 lbs in 5 days. Not good!

Anyway, during this time I have been busy searching for pictures to create a picture story board for Kristofer. A picture story board basically tells him what happens when and gives him a schedule. Our afternoons are the toughest around here so the story board I am hoping will give us a bit less craziness. Last night I had Kristofer help me put the pictures in order of what he wants to do. I made only one correction for him...computer time after homework. He chose the spot to hang it as well.
Today was the first day of using it fully and it went great! When he began to have a bit of a meltdown I just said, "Go look at the story board!" He came back said, "ok home work is next!" Easiest day of doing homework we have had! That and I have incorporated the trampoline into out homework time. He does one or two problems and then gets to jump. It gives him the outlet he needs and he comes back and sits down to do the next couple of problems. It's been great doing it this way!

Today Kristofer was having problems with everyone being near him. So he put on this baseball helmet and said, "I am protected from the evil invaders!" I guess that is how he sees all his sibs when they are in his personal space...as invaders! I had to take the pictures of him, he was just to funny as he was saying these things.

God is so good. No matter what comes my way I will praise Him!



There is an endless song
Echoes in my soul
I hear the music ring
And though the storms may come
I am holding on
To the rock I cling

chorus:
How can I keep from singing Your praise
How can I ever say enough
How amazing is Your love
How can I keep from shouting Your name
I know I am loved by the King
And it makes my heart want to sing

I will lift my eyes
In the darkest night
For I know my Savior lives
And I will walk with You
Knowing You'll see me through
And sing the songs You give

chorus

I can sing in the troubled times
Sing when I win
I can sing when I lose my step
And fall down again
I can sing 'cause You pick me up
Sing 'cause You're there
I can sing 'cause You hear me, Lord
When I call to You in prayer
I can sing with my last breath
Sing for I know
That I'll sing with the angels
And the saints around the throne.

MyHotComments

Diagnosis Given

Yesterday was the big day for our family. We finally have clarity with Kristofer.

Not really a surprise, we have suspected it for a while now. But the reality of it is overwhelming. Has it changed anything NO! We just now have a clear understanding as to why Kristofer is the way he is. Having the diagnosis will help in school. It gives us a place to start. Did I want this diagnosis, no - not at all. But it does validate all of my thoughts and feelings about what we have been dealing with. In our case I can honestly say that I DO NOT feel that it was caused by vaccines. The signs were there before he ever had the MMR vaccination. Our pediatrician at the time just was not, hmmmm, how to put this nicely....uhm aware of and did not listen to us. I'll admit that I did not push hard about it till he was 3 and we really started seeing how different Kris was from other children. Up until that point we just kept thinking it was his ears.

It's been a long road to get to this point. His behavior in the beginning was blamed on the never ending ear infections he had. Then one summer right after he had turned three our dear friends, Mike and Marty Short, came to visit us. They had just been given the diagnosis of autism with their oldest child. We asked them to watch Kristofer and tell us what they thought. Honestly, Marty had told me to read "The Out of Sync Child" about Sensory Process Disorder. I did but only so I could understand a little bit of what her son was dealing with. I refused to accept that Kristofer was dealing with those same issues that spring. But by summer and listening to what they had to say, listening to Mike (who is a special ed teacher) we decided to start pushing for help. When I approached our pediatrician I told her everything I knew at the time about SPD. She looked like a deer in headlights! No kidding here. She had never heard of it, but I continued to press for a referral. She sent us to a Behavioral Therapist. We started "play therapy" where the therapist worked on behavior modification. I kept asking her if she thought he was autistic but I never would get a straight answer. She referred Kris for occupational and speech therapies. So we started those. We began to see big changes in him. The behavioral therapy honestly helped us more than him, teaching us how to deal with and redirect his behavior.

When Kris was four and had been in therapy for a year I asked the therapists to be honest with me about whether he was autistic or not. They said they weren't sure but he did show signs and it could just be the SPD he was dealing with. So we enrolled him into pre-K at the therapy center. That fall we accepted the pastorate here in Illinois. Before moving Kristofer came down with a terrible ear infection. So we headed to the doctor, during that visit I was told they had finally (after a year) read the reports they had been sent from the OT, Speech and Behavioral Therapists. She was going to refer him to a pediatric specialist to be evaluated for possible autism. But we would never have been able to do it because we were moving in two weeks. The wait to see this specific doctor was 3-6 months. So we moved to IL, got Kristfoer enrolled into pre-K through the school since he had an IEP already. We began asking questions about having him evaluated. The school was reluctant because they were not seeing issues with him in Kindergarten. He was just a quiet boy, who stayed to himself. We knew different, something was amiss with our little guy.

So at the end of the school year after finding a family doctor that agreed with us, we started the process of finding out what exactly he has been dealing with. We truly believe God placed us in IL not only for ministry but also specifically for Kristofer. SIU has a wonderful research program that is connected to the Autism Program of Illinois. The center offers therapy services as well as a resource room for parents; with books, videos, computer programs that can help you create a variety tools to work with your child. For this I am so grateful to be living here in IL! So now that we have clarity and have given the full report to those that needed it in the school system, we feel like now we have the foundation on which to base his therapies and other helps at school on. We are not devastated by this diagnosis. Relieved but still overwhelmed with all the thoughts we have about Kristofer' future. We know God has a plan for his life. His Word tells us that, "He who began a ood work in you is faithful to complete it." God does not make mistakes, everything about God is perfect and Kristofer is one of His masterpieces that he is still working in and through. So we place our trust in a BIG GOD who has a plan for him and us.

I have to publicly say thank-you to all of my friends, family and "sistas -ya know who ya are!" for all the encouraging words yesterday and the last few weeks. It's nice to know we have a support system out there standing with us and praying for Kristofer and us.

Raw honesty

History of the Woman's Fight to Vote

My dear sister-n-law, Michele, sent this to me. I have no idea who wrote it but it is all true and every woman in the USA had better wake up and read this! I had never heard of any of this when I was in high school or even in college. Its very interesting. Women, out there, regardless of where you stand politically you are blessed to live here in the USA and you need to get out and VOTE on Nov. 4th.

*************************************************

A HISTORY LESSON NOT TAUGHT IN SCHOOL THAT I WANTED TO SHARE WITH YOU. NOT MANY ALIVE TODAY KNOW WHAT HAPPENED THEN.HOW QUICKLY WE FORGET.....IF ....WE EVER KNEW...... WHY WOMEN SHOULD VOTE

This is the story of our Grandmothers and Great-grandmothers; they lived only 90 years ago. nonetheless for picketing the White House, carrying signs asking for the vote. Remember, it was not until 1920that women were granted the right to go to the polls and vote. The women were innocent and defenseless, but they were jailed .

(Lucy Burns)

And by the end of the night, they were barely alive. Forty prison guards wielding clubs and their warden's blessing went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of 'obstructing sidewalk traffic.' They beat Lucy Burns, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping for air.

(Dora Lewis)

They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cell mate, Alice Cosu, thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack. Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging, beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women.

Thus unfolded the 'Night of Terror' on Nov. 15, 1917, when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson's White House for the right to vote.For weeks, the women's only water came from an open pail. Their food--all of it colorless slop--was infested with worms.

(Alice Paul)

When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike, they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her until she vomited. She was tortured like this for weeks until word was smuggled out to the press.


http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/suffrage/nwp/prisoners.pdf


So, refresh my memory.
Some women won't vote this year because ~ why, exactly?

We have carpool duties?

We have to get to work?

Our vote doesn't matter?

It's raining?


Last week, I went to a sparsely attended screening of HBO's new movie 'Iron Jawed Angels.' It is a graphic depiction of the battle these women waged so that I could pull the curtain at the polling booth and have my say. I am ashamed to say I needed the reminder. All these years later, voter registration is still my passion. But the actual act of voting had become less personal for me, more rote.
Frankly, voting often felt more like an obligation than a privilege. Sometimes it was inconvenient. My friend Wendy, who is my age and studied women's history, saw the HBO movie, too. When she stopped by my desk to talk about it, she looked angry. She was - with herself. 'One thought kept coming back to me as I watched that movie,' she said. 'What would those women think of the way I use, or don't use, my right to vote? All of us take it for granted now, not just younger women, but those of us who did seek to learn.' The right to vote, she said, had become valuable to her 'all over again.'

HBO released the movie on video and DVD . I wish all history, social studies and government teachers would include the movie in their curriculum I want it shown on Bunco night, too, and anywhere else women gather.

I realize this isn't our usual idea of socializing, but we are not voting in the numbers that we should be, and I think a little shock therapy is in order. It is jarring to watch Woodrow Wilson and his cronies try to persuade a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane so that she could be permanently institutionalized.


And it is inspiring to watch the doctor refuse. Alice Paul was strong, he said, and brave. That didn't make her crazy. The doctor admonished the men:

'Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity.'


Please, if you are so inclined, pass this on to all the women you know. We need to get out and vote and use this right that was fought so hard for by these very courageous women. Whether you vote democratic, republican or independent party - remember to vote. History is being made.


Read more:


http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/suffrage/nwp/tactics.html
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/suffrage/nwp/brftime3.html

Guest Blog

~This is from an email I received from a friend who received it from the SPD Network. It's a great message! ENJOY!~

Over the years, I have heard numerous versions of a charming but insightful story about a child whose hand became stuck inside a priceless vase. All attempts to remove the little hand proved fruitless, until finally the expensive vase had to be smashed. When the unhurt hand emerged from the shards of pottery, everyone gathered around could see that inside a tiny fist, the child was proudly clutching a one-cent coin! Obviously, the child's desire to hang onto that insignificant coin came at tremendous expense, as the irreplaceable, expensive vase was sacrificed for it.


Do we sometimes hang onto insignificant ideas, feelings, objects, relationships, beliefs, or possessions? At what cost? I'm not talking about the 'big stuff'—our values, ideals, and important relationships, which, like the vase, we would sacrifice only if absolutely necessary (or never). I'm talking about the things that may appear priceless to us, as the penny did to the child, but which have no real value in the greater scheme of things. Sometimes we hold so tightly to petty feelings, grudges, insistence on doing things our own way, our egos, replaceable possessions, 'rights,' and relationships, at tremendous cost to other people, to our ability to be successful, and to our own integrity.


Perhaps we can gain some perspective by asking ourselves, 'Is this like a valuable vase or a one-cent coin?' We might ponder this thought as we enter an IEP meeting, work to determine appropriate discipline for a child, interact with someone who has hurt our feelings, deal with a difficult colleague, or find ourselves participating in a heated discussion.


What is the cost of holding on? Would we damage a relationship, the feelings of another person, an opportunity for employment or progress in the classroom, fora 'one-cent coin?' Do we have a 'mite' which we are holding onto too strongly?


Sometimes opening our tightly clutched hand to examine our penny (our thoughts,beliefs, feelings, ideas, etc.) can save both the penny AND the precious vase! That's the intent of the process of social understanding; to examine all sides of an issue and proceed in a way that is hopefully effective for everyone!


Laurel Hoekman, Executive Director The Gray Center for Social Learning and Understanding www.thegraycenter.