My son has juvenile diabetes and autism, and he’s afraid to taste things.  Well, he was.🙂 Word to the wise: Do not use the words I’ll never when discussing parenting your children.  As a little girl, I lived by a few rules when it came to eating.  First, we all ate the same thing for […]

Get your snapping fingers ready:)~ Adam has never liked costumes.  When he was younger, I actually tried getting him to select things he wanted to wear for Halloween, but it was an exercise in futility, one of those efforts that just left me frustrated with his limited ability to communicate.  It’s often the little things […]

The past few days, it’s been our blessing to share time with Brian, Michelle, and Brayden while visiting Kevin’s mom and dad.  My nephew makes the third of four grandchildren on that side to have been diagnosed with autism.  Brayden reminds me a lot of Adam.  He loves letters and numbers to the point of […]

There was a time in American history when extended families commonly lived close (even shared the same land) and children were raised not just by their parents but under the daily influences of grandparents and aunts and uncles. What a relief it must have been for weary and emotional moms to pour out their frustrations […]

Over the weekend, something happened that will be going in my son’s scrapbook, right next to a picture of him talking on the telephone.   If you don’t know Adam well, the first thing you need to know is that when he grows up, he will be Mr. Monk.  Autism produces some hilarious behaviors in […]

My little girl is growing up, and I love seeing it happen!  I now have a personal assistant.  I had heard about this happening in other families as children start to grow up and mature, but honestly, I wondered when and if it would happen in mine. First, I should tell you that Riley has […]

Not too long ago, I heard an interview with an autistic man who was talking about his childhood. He said, “My mom always insisted that I greet everyone whom I approached or who approached me. I didn’t understand why this was so important to her or why she got so upset with me when I […]

Last Sunday, we took the kids to eat at Andy’s after church.  The kids love eating at Andy’s.  Second only to visiting the giant gum ball machine is the joy of selecting a cheap toy from the display case after they finish eating.   We punch a token out of the bottom of the cardboard classic […]

Riley is involved in a “luv triangle.” She gets all giggly around one of the boys in her class this year (who was also in her class last year) and tosses her hair back when he’s in the room. I have heard that she just “lights up” when he walks through the door. There’s another […]

Hello! God has a way of smacking me upside the head and helping me see more clearly. That’s exactly what happened to me when I viewed this YouTube video: I have two autistic children, and yet if I’d met this woman on the street, I’d have had absolutely no clue that she was so brilliant, […]