It’s 3:45 in the morning. He’s up so she’s up. Another early morning wake-up call courtesy of autism. He can’t tell time so when he wakes up he assumes it’s time to start his morning. She is so tired and weary, begging God to give her enough grace to make it through the day. Before Read More…
Nineteen Years Old
Nineteen. Where did the years go? My son turns nineteen years old today. I remember that tiny baby boy that I would position on my chest with his head on my shoulder as we sat in the recliner. I still vividly recall all the times I came home from work and he was bouncing Read More…
There Is No “Yet”
She sits quietly in the chair beside his hospital bed. The same chair where she has sat all night long for the past week while her husband lies in the hospital. Again. She is beyond weary. Beyond exhausted. For the past week she has desperately balanced having her husband in the hospital with the demands Read More…
Why Does She Do It?
She spent hours seemingly every day in endless doctor’s office waiting rooms. After she drives him home, she will prepare his food, do his laundry, set out his medicines,and clean up his tiny apartment. Later from her own home, she will work the phones with social service agencies, home care, and nursing services to Read More…
Caregivers Aren’t Superheroes
For years I have proclaimed and written that special needs moms are superheroes. I have often proclaimed my awe, amazement, and admiration for the special needs mom and for caregivers. I have shared my thoughts on my own wife and her days as a caregiver to our own son with profound special needs. I’ve Read More…
I Never Dreamed
This week one of my good friends accompanied his eighteen-year-old son off to join the Marines. Another friend sent his eighteen-year-old child off to college. My son turns eighteen this month. Last night he peed in the bathtub. The gap between our life and the life of a typical family is sometimes so Read More…
I Know What Matters
He coached my Little League baseball team. He taught me how to drive. He coached my high school basketball team. He drove me off to my dorm for my freshman year of college. When I got married, he was my best man in my wedding. When my son was born, he was waiting Read More…
The Valentine Letter
No chocolates, no flowers, not even a card. I know you say to yourself “That’s OK, what I really wanted was a nap anyway.” But you didn’t get that either. The dishes still lay untouched in the sink. The baskets of unfolded clothes are stacked on top of each other like planes circling the airport. Read More…
Love Came Down
I was completely broken. Not only was I broken, but I also didn’t even realize the severity of my brokenness. When I looked in the mirror I couldn’t see the wounds. I had learned to mask them from myself so I couldn’t notice them. But everyone else could. I was living in denial myself. If Read More…
The Christmas Gift for Mom
Never in her wildest dreams could she have imagined this would happen. It certainly wasn’t the path she had planned out for her life. When she initially got the news she was stunned. After all, this pregnancy wasn’t even expected in the first place. But to then get the news that this child wouldn’t Read More…