Online course

I am taking an online course on applied behavioral analysis (ABA) it is an intensive therapy regimen for autistic people. They needed test subjects for an online course so of course I signed up and want to learn as much as I can, we hope to get John on this program at some point but it is very costly and not many places and/or people provide it, so I want to learn as much as I can about it. Anyway I was reading and watching the videos it provides and I was overcome with seeing these other children act just like my child. We tend to live in our own little world and I know how John is and how he behaves, both good and bad, and even the silly autistic things he does, that make us laugh but to him make complete sense. Like getting right up in your face, nose to nose to see his reflection in your sunglasses. And I felt a bit overwhelmed that we are not the only ones living this day in and day out. I know others do and I am even part of a yahoo group here in the valley that talk everyday via emails. But seeing it is so different. And right now my heart aches and prays for those like us who live this life and who need more strength and love, and prayers just to get through one day, one hour, one minute. Please take time today to pray for those; the many out there that are affected by autism and take a stand when some one asks about it and when you are out in public and you see a child acting out, don't judge you don't know what is happening at home, or what difficulties that family has, instead pray for them. Love them, give them compassion. Treat them like Jesus would treat them. Quiet doesn't always mean "shy"A tantrum doesn't always mean naughty AUTISM Would you know it if you saw it?

New House story

Ok so I promised you the whole story on getting our house, so here it is. Well first to find it was a blessing already, it was in short sale and the sellers needed to get rid of it fast because the husband is in the military and they are moving. So when I first saw it I knew it was the house for us, I loved the layout, the space it gave us, extra rooms that were not even listed, great size to go with the unbelievable price, and in the right school district (which is a huge thing alone, because John needs to be in this district so that he receives all of the things he needs), good neighborhood, I checked to find out where all of the predators are, you all know me. I did my homework and knew in my heart that this was the perfect place for us and definitely where God wanted us to be. And Gabe and our realtor among many others said that this was not going to happen, to get it in the price that we needed was just not going to happen, but I told Gabe I knew this was our place and we needed to leave it up to God to take care of all of it. So we placed an offer and it was counter offered and then we counted back and that was taken, miracle because it was still way below the actual value but with the market right now it really worked in our favor because the bank just needed to get rid of it. So of course we thought we were home free, but God had other plans, nothing is that easy for us, and we should have known. But just getting the bank to accept our offer was huge and already a great witness to God's grace, but he still needed people to see his full working hand and all that he can do, move mountains, no matter how big. So we start the mountains of paperwork, and inspections, and more paperwork and go here and there talking to everyone. We hear that we will be closing on the 31st of March. That day rolls around and we find out that we are actually not approved like we were told because I had to be on the loan (which at first we were not going to do), and since I was going on the loan they had to count all of my debt and for me showed no income. So that hurt us very badly. And we knew it would but we added me to the loan and then couldn't get approved. And then we found out that we had until April 9th to get a new loan approved, or we would lose the house, our escrow money, the inspection money, everything. So we started completely over for a different loan with Gabe's grandparents co-signing for us, which we a miracle as well, and everything had to be done within about 3 business days, which you know banks can never do, we were stressed to say the least but still left it in God's hands, to work diligently and push whatever needed pushed. We had so many great people also working non stop for us. And on Friday the 11th we got our keys to our perfect home. We realized that through all of this God still had work to do on us and other's around us to proclaim him and his mightiness, and to trust him when all hope was lost and it was impossible to even continue to get this house. We knew that God wanted us to push through and give him a chance to work and not just give up and through it we got to see him preform so many miracles I can hardly believe it myself and it was such a pleasure to be apart of his work. Tiring and stressful but what has come from it is matchless, not only did we get the house, but so many people we got to share with about him and how he works in miraculous ways and plant seeds in their hearts, family members, our realtor, mortgage guy, title guy, people that came to bring us papers to sign, the sellers, and so many others, every time we turned around we were sharing with someone else about our great Lord. I wouldn't change any of it, I am so thankful everyday that God uses us to help in his plans and it humbling to know that we are worthy of him working on our behalf in every aspect of our lives. Well that is our newest adventure and I am sure another is right around the corner and when it happens I will be sure to let you know every detail and what great and mighty work the Lord had done for us again.

Update on John

Well we had our last of the meetings for transitioning to kindergarten. John will be going to a school here that has an autism classroom. It sounds like the perfect place for him, he will have lots of therapy, like music, art, and tons more, even one outside playing sports. They said that in this program academics tend to suffer because they are working on getting the behaviors under control. But for those of you who know John, know that he will not suffer in this area, he is so great at all of his letters, numbers, shapes and the other basics that you learn in kindergarten plus I work with him at home on these things as well. And his one big goal this year, is more language and also the ability to write his name, so please pray for these things to emerge. I just wanted to let you all know where he was at and how things are going for him. Moving into the new house is proving to be a bit challenging as he just wants to live there and stop going back in forth, but that should be resolved soon and I think he will be more settled.

Our New house

Can you believe it we are home owners for the very first time. We had some Major hiccups since my last post. That full story will come later. But God gave us a few miracles through our trails to get us to here. We recieved our keys on Friday and now we are in the busy process of moving in. The boys are excited and love running around, and especially jumping on the trampoline that we got with the house. We are all so excited but very tired, so I know once we are moved in and settled that we will all be having so much more fun and really grasping the sinking in knowledge that we just bought a house and it is ours. Yeah! I am beyond words right now and really just so happy.