Recovering Noah

Did my title grab your attention? Get your mind out of the gutter, people. This is a family-friendly blog (well.... for the most part.... well.... most of the time). Yesterday at RPM, Noah picked that he wanted to do a science lesson, so he learned about birds and then in a later lesson he learned about the life of a bee. See, you silly billies. Perfectly innocent. I have to tell you - and I know I'm going to sound like a broken record - RPM is the absolute best intervention we've done for Noah. And we've tried everything. And, maybe, all those " everythings " added up to get him to where he could really benefit from RPM - I don't know. All I do know is that I thank God we found out about it... and I'm so thankful that we live in Texas so that we can go twice a week. Let me just say that I looooooooooooove Austin, TX. Is it not the greatest place ever? Where else in Texas can you wear tye -dye, birkenstocks , and smell of patchouli - and no one even b...

Not much to blog about since I've now posted TWO DAYS IN A ROW! Yay for me!! Actually this is the THIRD day. Is that a record or what? Actually, I really don't have anything much to say at all. I just wanted to be able to say that I've blogged three days in a row. Shouldn't I be getting a medal or a box of cookies or something for my endeavor? I really need to get up and get busy. I'm taking Noah to Austin for RPM in an hour. Ack! What a drive. 4 hours up and back - with no time to stop off in between. I learned the hardway with a "sidetrip" to Ikea that you don't leave Austin after 3:30 pm - because then you get stuck in the major traffic jam that is known as Belton and Temple. My goodness. Anyway, my mom is coming up at 8:30 to watch Nandini and Eli - which means, yes, she's out of the hospital and doing much, much better. And if there's anything that can get her blood pressure up and running, it's spending a day with my younger two kidd...

Yesterday I blogged about reading Dangerous Surrender by Kay Warren and how it terribly moved me and made be want to be Seriously Disturbed and Gloriously Ruined. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, you'll have to read yesterday's post). I wasn't quite finished with my blog, but had to stop to make dinner - which was already half an hour late. Yep. As I was sitting and contemplating on how to save the world, I forgot about the hungry mouths in my own home. Sigh. I know that I'm already in the midst of God's will for my life. God has blessed us with THE most amazing 3 children in the world - each with their own needs, quirks, and personalities. They are wonderful. And maybe that's just where I need to be right now. Maybe my Dangerous Surrender was giving up my old life for my new life. And maybe my dangerous surrender is raising a child with autism - not a child who has recovered from autism. And maybe God's plan is for me to raise our chi...

So. Are any of you reading Dangerous Surrender by Kay Warren? I read about it on Amy's blog and just instantly felt that I had to rush out and get it. Of course, I could have ordered it on Amazon and it would have arrived in just 3 days.. but no, I had to get it NOW. So I wormed my way into a playgroup for kids with special needs - all the way out in Rockwall - just so I could then say, "Hey, if I'm already out here, I might as well go the extra 18 miles to Mardel and buy that book." And that's what I did. And then I spent the next 2 days ignoring the kids while I sat spellbound to the book - and then spent another day completely traumatized. And here I am. Seriously Disturbed and Gloriously Ruined. There are so many parts of the book that I want to share... parts that I'm hoping make you think that this book is the bee's knees so that you'll go out and get it, too. I will probably get in some serious copyright trouble, but at least I'm acknowledg...

What is it about 3:00 and my body clock. Am I on some sort of internal alarm system that I don't know about? The truth is, I am in excruitating, I'm-gonna-die pain. And do you know what it all boils down to? A boil. A stupid boil. And it's located in a spot that I'm not even going to blog about. Of course, just writing that lets you know it can only be in a few places... but I will just let you guess.. because I am not even going to write about it. And I'm not going to the doctor because I have this fear they'll ship me off to some teaching hospital where a crowd of 22-year old interns and visiting physicians from all sorts of countries will gather around to view the awful existence that is my boil. It would probably get published about in some high-falutin' medical journal - with pictures - and I would just die of embarrassment. So, no. I'm going to try and treat it myself. The problem is that when you google "boil - home remedies" you come up...

It is no secret that I will talk about bodily functions whenever I get the chance. I've been changing diapers non-stop for 5 years now and have a son who had diarrhea for 2 straight years... so nothing is off topic for me. So, with that, I thought I'd copy and paste a hilarious email that my friend Susie sent me today. I rarely crack up when I read things, but this had me in stitches. Hope it makes your day, too. :-) ********************************************************************************** A 3-year-old tells all from his mother's restroom stall. By Shannon Popkin My little guy, Cade, is quite a talker. He loves to communicate and does it quite well. He talks to people constantly, whether we're in the library, the grocery store or at a drive-thru window. People often comment on how clearly he speaks for a just-turned-3-year-old. And you never have to ask him to turn up the volume. It's always fully cranked. There've been several embarrassing times that I...

Well, the decision has been made. Why dont' you nip on over to Amy's site and see if they have a new member (or members) in their family. :-) Auntie Leslie

Six years ago we received the referral for our Noah. I can remember it so clearly. I even had all these pictures that I was going to scan, but our printer/scanner is broke. But someone at my office had a camera and they took pictures while I opened the email that day that had little Noah's referral picture in it. And those pictures are priceless. The look on my face as I saw my little boy for the first time is priceless. Six years ago today our lives changed forever. We had no idea what awaited us. We had no idea that this little 4.9 pound three-month old baby boy would change the course of our lives forever. We had no idea that he would change who we were - that God would use him to touch our souls and transform us. I wish I could express how much I love that boy. I would give my life a thousand times for him. Noah Partha Thomas, I love you SO much. You mean the world to me, and I am forever grateful that God blessed me by being your mom. I live to be your Mom.

In one hour, an adoption committee is going to be meeting to determine if my friend, Amy, and her fanastic, amazing family is "THE" family that is best suited to adopt two little babies through CPS. Actually, it's two separate hearings going on about the same time. The first little one, Sweet 'E' is a gorgeous little boy that Amy has her heart set on (and that I have my heart set on Nandini marrying. lol) . And the second one is a little baby, Baby 'D' that I haven't seen pictures of yet, but I'm sure she's just beautiful. She sounds precious. (And speaking of Precious, Christine, if you're reading this and if Amy gets matched with Baby 'D', I'm going to send her over your way for some hair help!) So, anyway, even though it's not my adoption, I haven't gotten anything done today. I am just sitting on pins and needles waiting for the phone to ring or for an email saying that Amy is a new mom... even though I know the me...

Today, I had to sent out an email to 50 people as part of our requirement for receiving an adoption grant from a wonderful organization called Brittany's Hope. I really hate to solicitate money or donations - it makes me feel all oogey, but without the Brittany's Hope grant, we would not have been able to adopt Nandini. It would have been financially impossible. I wanted to go ahead and copy that email on here for two reasons: 1. Some of you reading this might want to make a contribution to Brittany's Hope's annual Walk of Love. It's a bit like Race for the Cure. Each grant recipient finds donors to sponsor them for the walk. Since we won't be able to make the Walk this year (it'll be held in PA this May), someone will for walk for us. 2. I wanted to spotlight Brittany's Hope because it truly is an amazing organization. Not only do they provide grants for special needs waiting children, but they also have several humanitarian projects that would be wond...

One thing about having 3 sick kids at a time is that you spend most of your days rocking one of them in a rocking chair. And if this happens to occur when the other two are sleeping, then you've got a lot of time on your hands to just sit and think. So, that's what I've been doing the last few weeks. I've had a real change come over me since Christmas. I am so desiring to live a live of simplicity. It's something that Sim's been wanting for a long time. I have no doubt that if it wasn't for me he'd be living in a tiny cottage in the middle of Wales or in a yurt in a forest in Colorado. He's extremely minimalist and detests waste. I'm not joking. His closest is extremely bare. Yesterday, he wore a shirt that he's had for 11 years. And even though I gave him two brand new sweaters 9 years ago, one of them still has the tags on it... because the other "still has a lot of life in it". So, honestly, I have no idea how he's stayed mar...

I really have nothing interesting to say, but I'm up at 3:00 am and can't sleep - and feeling guilty that I haven't blogged in a while. So, I'm about to fix a cup of tea and start typing away. Again, I have nothing much to write, so just thought I'd give some snippets as to what we've been up to lately and what's been going on in our house. Let's see. I have to drive to Dallas today for a mammogram. Hmmm.. maybe that's why I can't sleep. The thought of my boobs being smushed into a vice keeps me waking up in a cold sweat. Darn mammograms! You know they were invented by men. Noah just had a massive stinky - in the middle of the night - and now he's wide awake and shrieking. Wouldn't you be? I just woke Sim up and asked if we could spend $500 to get Noah's allergy tests redone. I'm just sure that he has some new allergies and I'm a lazy butt unless I have test results in front of me that say "Don't feed Noah this or t...