A couple of weeks ago I found out my 3-yo son has autism, so I’m back under the waves – coming up for air only once in a great while before getting pounded down again. I post links on my Visionary Womanhood Facebook page almost every day, so I thought I’d quick send you some of my favorites in case you missed them over there. I’ll try and write a little bit about what’s going on with my little boy soon. Thank you for praying for our family.
Ten Questions That Can Change Your Life by Leslie Vernick
How Predators Groom our Children (Today’s Christian Woman)
What Should We Do When They Stray (Feeding on Christ)
Why We Fail at Family Devotions by Tim Challies
Five Surprising Things about the Proverbs 31 Woman (Highlands blog)
God will Give You More Than You Can Handle (The Gospel Coalition)
What Self Care Looks for Me Right Now (Modern Mrs. Darcy)
Free Downloadable 4-week Scripture meditations. One is about waiting and enduring through trials, and the other one is on the steadfast love of God. Edited by one of my favorite bloggers/writers, Wendy Alsup.
There is just a little bit of time left to donate to Give Her Wings current fundraiser. It’s a fun one this month – and such a blessing to desperate women and their children.
Love,
Natalie
I’m praying for you, Natalie. My son has a different diagnosis but Autistic-like behaviors. When I come up for air, I’ll be emailing you.🌺
oh, Natalie, I have no clue what you are going through but I will be praying for you. Life is not easy. Today a cousin of mine lost his 2 year old daughter. Yesterday she was taken to the hospital put into ICU and today as we are praying for her and communicating through whatsapp, he types “She died!” Just like that, she is gone. The sweetest baby, just 2 years old and gone. While we know she’s in Heaven with Jesus, I still cannot believe it.
I will be praying for you to come up for air. Although most doctors don’t believe diet has anything to do with autism, I have read some amazing results just by changing and eliminating certain foods from diet. Check out specially dairy and processed foods. I know – one more thing to worry about. :/ Praying for wisdom, guidance and discernment for you.
I will pray for your cousin. How tragic. I am counting my blessings in that I have physically healthy children.
We’ve done elimination diets – all kinds of diets, actually, over the years. Nothing has made a difference for our special needs kids, unfortunately. I’ll keep you posted on how therapy goes. My sister has two autistic pre-teens – and they had ABA therapy in their home for years with huge success. This is the route we are going to take as well. Intense – but it will give him the foundation he needs.
You have my prayers concerning your son’s autism diagnosis, Natalie. I am so sorry — the under-the-waves/back-up-for-air cycle is draining and so very difficult.
May the Lord bring success through the ABA therapy, as He did with your sister’s children. Temple Grandin, a famous, high-functioning autistic woman you may be familiar with and whose opinions I value, is a strong proponent of ABA. Though our family didn’t choose to go the ABA route with our son, I found much useful information in Temple’s book, The Way I See It.
If therapy doesn’t proceed as you hope, and you consider trying something else, I would recommend looking into RDI (Relationship Development Intervention). Tammy Glaser, a mother of a 25-year-old daughter with autism and aphasia, has an excellent blog detailing how she works with her daughter, and the principles of RDI significantly inform her work. There’s a gold mine of information there for families with children of any age who are on the autism spectrum.
http://aut2bhomeincarolina.blogspot.com/
Having said all that, though, feel free to ignore all of this if it is too much at this point. Sometimes the drive to get as much information as we can after a difficult diagnosis can be very strong, and we search out and consume huge amounts of data with intensity; other times, we get so overloaded, feeling like we’re sinking beneath the weight of it all, we just can’t do anything anymore. No more research; nothing.
I don’t know where you are on your journey (I know it’s been a couple months since you posted this), but I hope this is helpful in the stage you’re at.
And if it’s too much for now, I understand. There was a time I had to stop all my reading and research and just rest.
(But in that quiet time, incidentally, I discovered a book entitled Drawing Autism, and it brought surprising comfort to me as I paged through the book, looking at art created by autistic individuals, and reading the descriptions [provided by the artists themselves, or by their caregivers] of how the art reflects the artists’ way of seeing or imagining their world. A truly profound and beautiful work. Highly recommended.)
May the Lord bless you with peace as you journey, Natalie.
Thank you for all the great recommendations!