Trials/Blessings

I have been thinking a lot lately about things that happen that appear at first to be inconvenient/trial, but after you look back, you can see the Lords hand in it all. For instance,

This past week, our family has been suffering with the stomach flu. I hate the stomach flu, probably because when I have had my share of throwing up through all of my pregnancies. (All I have to do is have the stomach flu for 1 day, and all my baby hungriness goes right out the door.(My neighbor calls pregnancy the Egyptian flu. In nine months, you’re a mummy!!!)) Nonetheless, my son came down with the flu on Friday. I had been planning on going into the school and helping out for 5 hours like I do on most Fridays. But of coarse now I couldn’t go. I was stuck home. I started reworking one of my songs, and got the instrumental part finished in those 5 hours that I would have spent at the school. What a blessing. I am grateful I was able to stay home. (My son probably wasn’t so grateful though)

My biggest trial/blessing has been my children!!! I am sure you will all agree. I have heard when you pray for patience, you “are blessed” with another child. I love each one of my children so much and wouldn’t want to go without any of them. My boys with autism have probably been the ones to teach me most about patience. Before I had them, I didn’t understand autism at all. I thought that they were children who just needed a whole lot more attention, and if you gave it to them, they would get better. HA!!!! Crazy hu!!! But when my second son started showing signs of autism, I thought if I never got upset at him, (double ha) if I spent every moment I could with him, if I showed every ounce of love I could, I could pull him out of it. Where I was greatly mistaken was the “I”. I thought I had to do it all. Only after several years of hardship and finally realizing I desperately needed help, I learned to place my trust in the Lord. He stepped in and showed me a much easier way. Having my sons has taught me how to think outside of the box, and all thanks I give to a much higher power who’s picture is perfect. I honestly can say, I am grateful for this experience . . . now that I am not going through the hard part anymore!!!

My first four children have some form of disability. I have 2 with autism and 2 with dyslexia. They have all required a great amount of effort in trying to teach them. My last little girl is amazing. I have found several educational websites that have fun games for children. The other day, she got on (by herself) and clicked on a game. (Thankfully I don’t have to worry about the sites.) After a while, I came to check on her and she was playing a game where you find the bigger number and click on the “crocodile mouth” (<>) that is pointing the right way. I had never taught her how to do this. She knows how to count to like 50 or something. She knows what the numbers 1-10 look like. But I hadn’t gotten around to teaching her the bigger numbers. When I first peaked in, she was doing the basic numbers 1-10 and getting them right. I was impressed because I had never taught her about the “crocodile mouth”. Then it went to the two digit numbers. Somehow she was still getting them right. Then it went to the hundreds. I got up to explain to her how to be able to tell those big numbers apart. She then explained to me that you are not looking for the biggest numbers, you are looking for the smallest. My term of the crocodile mouth was not correct in her mind. They were arrows pointing to the smaller number. 1<2 Crazy. She amazes me. So I have all these things I have made to teach my other children. I pulled them out to finally teach her the teen numbers. Within minutes, she totally got it. I am used to explaining, explaining again, my child gets frustrated (or I do) and we try it again the next day, usually taking several days or weeks going over the same concept before they finally get it. It takes me several minutes to teach her. Wow!!! Makes me feel like a great teacher. I also think it helps to already have all those visual manipulatives to help teach her.

I truly am grateful for this life, for friends and family, for support and love, and especially for an ever watchful Father above, who loves us enough to let us struggle at times.

My two favorite educational websites (both free) are . . . .
www.abcya.com (I learned about this one when I was helping at the school. They have the kids play it when they are done with there testing. It has games for k-5th grade.)

and

www.starfall.com (Summer showed me this one. Thank you!)