Oh my stars! It helped this mama to talk to another God-centered mama about my dearest heart - loving all of my children. Recently, I had the sweet joy of chatting up a storm with the God-Centered Mom podcaster, Heather MacFadyen. She asked so many good and hard questions for her listeners. She is a skilled interviewer. Parenting in general is hard. It sands us down raw and tender, before burnishing us to a shine. Loving a child on the autism spectrum in particular is the grittiest thing I have ever done, and the most soul-shaping. If you have a Continue Reading

The healing isn't any more sudden than the breaking was. My spiritual life is like walking across a canyon on a swinging bridge. To turn back is impossible. The bridge disappears. Esther Emery I have always loved a good bridge. Bridges are fascinating feats of engineering and beauty, practical and picturesque, and a vivid picture of what we need while loving a child with autism, or any child for that matter. And the living God. We are always searching for ways to connect our hearts to our children, to each other and to God our Maker. When I was in Continue Reading

"There is for us a wonderment about another way in the world." Walter Brueggemann I guess what I wanted was a smooth life. I worked hard to arrange it. It wasn't hard work I hoped to avoid. It was chaos. It was struggle, heartbreaking, can't-fix-it struggle. I can see now that is not how life works, but for a while I labored under the idea that my hard work = the life I always wanted which included a happy, healthy, well-adjusted family. It actually worked for a while, or seemed to anyway. Mike and I were exhausted throughout his Continue Reading

The more fear we feel about a specific enterprise, the more certain we can be that that enterprise is important to us and to the growth of our soul." Steven Pressfield It has been twenty years since I first heard the word I was afraid of, the one I never wanted to hear. For just as long, I have resisted writing about it. I haven't wanted to return here, to my shipwrecked place. It was here that certainty, strength and underlying self-reliance were broken to bits. I'm afraid if I venture out to that sea again, I will get Continue Reading