New Year

Well, as I suspected, constant blogging is a bit unrealistic for me. :) But I suspect you would all breathe a sigh of relief anyway. I did one of those 'year in status' apps on Facebook and realized that last year was an incredibly turbulent year for me, in particular. We're coming up on the year anniversary of the shooting at UAH. I still feel shell shocked when I stop to think about it. My heart and prayers go out continually to those families. My own professor, who survived a gunshot to the head, lost an eye and most of the vision in the other, had extensive jaw reconstruction and brain trauma, but was back trying to resurrect his lab when I left in August. He is truly a walking miracle and testament of faith. He was determined to begin teaching again this spring, which he will not do, but if anyone can overcome what was done, it will be him.

I feel blessed to have been able to offer my counseling services immediately following, but I will never be able to forget seeing those things through the eyes of those who experienced them. It does, however, make me even more proud of my wonderful husband, who is still committed to military chaplaincy. I know he will probably be the receiver of equally tragic stories, but I also know his particular wisdom and style will greatly help those young men and women serving our country who so desparately need a word of encouragement, hope, and fortitude.

For those of you who aren't involved in our daily family whirlwind, Tim is being trained as a military chaplain. It has always been a dream for him, and is now coming to fruition. It has been a long and, at times, frustrating process. However, if everything goes as scheduled, he will be shipped off to Ft. Jackson for about four months this summer to complete his training.

I took time off from my nursing school track for a multitude of reasons, but hope to go back in the fall, although exactly where I'll be going back is up for grabs (or for the spiritual needs of the church, more accurately). Andrew started full time school this year and it has been very, very difficult for him and us both. While his little intellect has grown by leaps and bounds (he is such a great reader! Far beyond typical kindergardner status--and he is also adding and subtracting), his emotional and social skills have really been challenged. We finally made the decision to hire an avocate for him to convince the school to give him the services we feel he needs. He is now receiving behavioral and occupational therapy in addition to his speech therapy. He is also supposed to be getting a classroom aide. I openly confess my skepticism that things will improve a great deal. Very few educators in his school know more about autism than simply having heard the word. Working with the school often feels like a full-time job on top of our other full time jobs. We are praying that we will be able to get him into a school next year that is equipped to help him. I find it ironic that if he weren't so high functioning, we would have an easier time. My heart, again, is full of prayers for those children and families without the wonderful resources and support system that we have.

Beyond this struggle, our children continue to be the constant joy in our lives. Elisabeth is doing very well. She has had a great year. It seems like she has grown a foot--she's almost as tall as I am! She has been taking ballet and baton for the second year and acro for the first year, and loving it all. Andrew is also taking acro. He loves it too! Elisabeth is pretty impressive with her baton already! She wants to be a majorette, of course. She has made straight A's so far, and loves her gifted curriculum. So far they have mummified a chicken learning about the Egyptians, and Elisabeth played Remus in their play about Romulus and Remus as they were learning about Ancient Rome. She also played Mary in a Christmas play and sang a solo about Baby Jesus. It is hard to admit that in three months, she'll be ten, and I'll have to claim a pre-teen. Watch out world! Andrew, when not overwhelmed, is the silliest, funloving little boy. He is still very affectionate, loves wrestling and daddy time. And of course, loves his sister to pieces -- until she starts pestering him! I know it sounds strange, but even their typical sibling wars bring me joy.

This was also the first year Andrew really understood what was going on at Christmas. He was able to differentiate the gifts from his 6th bday and the gifts from Christmas, instead of having a month long 'me' party!! His favorite activity was our advent tree, although having to wait a whole day to put on another ornament was very hard. The sweetest moment was when we were riding in the car and he suddenly said, "Momma, Jesus is God's Son and Christmas is his birthday." He also loved playing with the Little People Christmas Nativity set -- all the army men and dinosaurs had to 'watch' baby Jesus too. Of course the army men also had an AWESOME army battle involving our Christmas tree. I'm still not sure how the army tank made it all the way up the Christmas tree, but it seemed like it had a great tactical advantage.

We are celebrating a New Year today in grand tradition. Tim, of course, is cooking -- Meatloaf with his new secret Dr. Pepper glaze recipe, mash pot, greens, peas, cornbread. Wish you were all here to share, but I'll send you good wishes this afternoon during my post-feast nap. I will follow this up with some newer photos of the family over Christmas and during our first snowfall of the 2010-2011 winter season. Blessings!

Fall Frustrations

Well, it has been a while, yet not a lot has changed. I'm trying to be philosophical--spiritual--whatever gets me through-al! but, SHOCK, I find I am not a patient person. I've tried to take myself firmly in hand for feeling useless since my decision to put off nursing school. I have great reasons --we are still having so much trouble with Andrew/school stuff (more on this later I assure you), plus employment is necessary to actually AFFORD school (assuming I get to the point where I can actually put some back!!) But progress on every front seems so slow it feels like it might as well be standing still! I've been told repeatedly in multiple forms that I need to start considering how my future goals will mesh with my ministerial calling as an elder in the church. Seriously? Start thinking about it? I dwell on this every day. I have neither the time nor inclination to get into that theological pit at the moment-- I'm sure you are all breathing a sigh of relief.

We're still struggling with getting Andrew settled into school. The fact is, he would be ecstatic if we just homeschooled. Our fear is, the less he is socialized, the less able he IS to socialize. We feel the frustration of just not knowing how to help the little guy. The school system, quite frankly, is irritating in their condescension. If we were experts in dealing with the behavioral/social issues of autism spectrum, we certainly wouldn't be beating our fists against the wall of public education to get him the help we need, would we?? I think I exhibit marvelous patience when our decisions as parents irt our lifestyle choices, health choices, etc, are called into question, but I am close to my limit here. Then again, perhaps I am being overly sensitive. I know it happens when your own children are involved.

On the good side, progress is being made towards Tim starting chaplaincy school for National Guard. The wheels of government grind slowly, but we are used to that in the ministry as well, lol!

I'm holding on to all of my wonderful family and friends who let me vent my spleen (I love that analogy, but I have no idea why that is a good thing), who give me good advice (and keep me out of trouble), and who remind me that each and every day is a blessing -- and INDEED IT IS! God always give me what I need exactly when I need it. I was affirmed just yesterday in my decision to pursue nursing as a ministry, and I needed that reminder! I have a wonderful husband who has dinner waiting for me almost every night, and even occasionally a clean house (did I choose well or what? :) And I thank God every minute of the day for the wonderful blessings I receive from being a mom to two extraordinary, lovely, amazing children. I feel like Elisabeth gets left out with all of our focus on Andrew sometimes, but honestly after 3rd grade, 4th is smooth sailing! She loves her teacher, her class, her gifted program, her churches. She's content and that makes me content as well.

So, join me in taking a deep fall breath. I'll leave you with a few pictures to get you in the Halloween spirit.

Catching Up (as if that were possible)

Ok, I'll try to catch some of you up. Tim is still pastoring here in OXR where he's been for a while. Wonderful, truly decent and loving people. I'm working PT as a children's pastor up the mountain a ways -- equally wonderful people. Elisabeth just started 4th grade, and Andrew just started Kindergarten. Andrew was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (specifically Asperger's Syndrome) in Spring of 2008, and getting used to a full day of school has been a challenge. We got Elisabeth's SAT scores back from last year and her equivalent was 1380. We've always said she was more brilliant than either of us. Now if we could only get her to clean her room. I will be starting a new FT job next week teaching tiny ones. Literally, one year olds. Yes, I was in school. Yes, I will return. But paying for higher education is unfortunately required, so I'm taking a hiatus to make it possible. I have declared this year my year of jubilee. Go do your research. Ciao for now!

New Beginning

Well, here we are...as of March, at least! Not much has changed, I guess, physically (except I've now lost over 75lbs lol!) But a lot keeps happening to us and I decided it is time to try my not-so-great technical skills out on you guys.

I have been fascinated by a book called 'Composing a Life' by Mary Catherine Bateson. The caption of her book is 'Life as a work in progress -- the improvisations of five extraordinary women.' It is about five women who have made an impact on the modern world and how they wove together the complicated and seemingly insurmountable events in their lives to create something extraordinary. It's about interruptions, discontinuity -- women who have been through a lot of transitions and how they are able to not only cope with them, but make something beautiful out of them. Enough about the book. For those of you (you know who you are) with a more anthropological interest, try this article by Bateman on how she came up with the idea of this book: http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/05/03/con05110.html

So, my goal is to simply observe the sometimes beautiful/sometimes sublime patterns of our complex life. If I ever feel ambitious, I'll try for another traditional blog for those of you who don't have time or interest to read the ramblings of my mind and just want to know/see the kids (you know who you are too! You don't have to be ashamed.) But for now, you'll just have to wade through to find what you want.