Recovering Noah

What would you do? Sim just called and one of his workmates bought him a motorcycle. That's right. Bought. Him. A. Motorcycle. A little Kawasaki 250. All of his workmates were in on it. Is it obvious that Sim works entirely with men? Because if there'd been a single woman on his crew, she'd have been the voice of reason that said, "Sim drives two hours to work each way. Do you know what kind of traffic he drives through? It's a nice thought, but saving a bit on gas is not going to console his wife and their three children when he gets plowed down by an 18-wheeler." Ya'll, I may have a heart attack. And he hasn't even driven the thing. I mean, on one hand, that is so incredibly sweet of his coworkers. I mean, who does that? Who says, "I think I'll buy a motorcycle for someone." It's awesome. It's fantastic. It's really, really nice. But I love my husband and I would like him to stay in one piece. Is that too much to ask for? W...

In case you haven't read my other post , Noah got to meet Anoop last Thursday when the American Idol tour came through Dallas. In no particular order, here are some pictures from the concert and from the meet and greet after the show. P.S. Don't let Noah's nonchalantness in the pictures fool you. He was exhausted by the time the concert finished. He may not be reacting in the pictures, but his reaction during the concert said it all. He had the time of his life!!!! Thanks again, Anoop and Mike for setting this up for us!!

Okay, so I guess you can tell from the title of this blog post that Noah met Anoop. (!!!!!) And I've been dying to tell you all but have been without a computer for the last week. Aarrrgh! Anyway, there is SO much to tell - and quite honestly - I don't think I could do it justice by typing it all out... so I did my first ever video blog. Just to warn you.... I can talk! My "short" video ended up being 16 minutes long. Yikes. But it really does tell you everything that happened and how Noah did and what the concert was like and how it went when Noah met Anoop. BUT... I also did another version that ended up being 1:36 because I was completely mortifed when I turned off the camera from the first video and saw that it was 16 minutes long! So... version 1 is the longer, but detailed version, and version 2 is the short and sweet - but-you'll-totally-miss-what-happened version. Point is.... NOAH MET ANOOP! Pictures to come!!! P.S. Youtube said my video was too long - lo...

Hey everyone. Sorry I haven't posted the info on Eli's therapies just yet. This weekend was a whirlwind and we're leaving today to go to Austin for a week. Noah starts his 4 day RPM "camp" at HALO tomorrow. He's so excited! I am technologically way behind, so I don't have a laptop or a blueberry - oops, I mean blackberrry - or an Iphone . Which means... I will be without internet access for the week. Strangely, I'm actually looking forward to it. Hope you all have a great week and hopefully I will be full of blog posts when we get back. Prayers are very much appreciated for the drive down there. Nandi is... how shall I put this... not exactly the best traveler..... Back next week!

I wonder what Eli's knight name would be? Sir Eli the Great? Sir Eli the Conqueror? Sir Eli the Boy Wonder? We have seen so many changes take place with him these last few weeks. It is truly mind-boggling. Now, I won't go into the therapies we're doing with him just yet - I'll save that for another post. Ya'll know by now that I can be a bit of a jabberwockey, so if I don't cut to the chase then this post will quickly turn into a novel. Okay. So, a year ago Eli tested in the bottom 1% of all 5 year olds in the nation for coordination. He couldn't kick a ball, couldn't crawl on his hands and knees without falling, couldn't even draw a circle.... the list goes on and on. Fast forward to now. In May we started taking Noah to a new therapist and we had to buy these expensive glasses that flash lights into your eye (I'll get into that in another post.) Anyway, they were, like, a hundred and fifty dollars so we decided to get Nandi and Eli tested to se...

You know, God is starting to open my eyes to the miracles all around me. For years, I've thought that only two things could constitute a miracle: 1. That Noah would be miraculously healed of autism overnight and 2. That I would be able to pass by a bowl of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and not grab a handful Unfortunately, neither have yet to happen. But if I keep focusing and keep waiting for that one major miracle to happen - for Noah to be healed of autism - I'm going to miss all the everyday miracles that occur in my life. Just for Noah to be alive - for him to be walking and to be healthy - that in itself is a miracle. Anyway, the other day God showed me two very distinct miracles to illustrate that even though my prayers may not be answered He is still very much a part of my life and looking out for me and my family. The first one happened about two weeks ago when I was cooking spaghetti. I had a huge pan full of boiling water and took it to the sink to drain. Because ...

You know, I don't think I have ever posted a recipe on here before. It's not really my thing. Plus, I don't want anyone coming back saying they wasted a bunch of money on a food dish that ended up tasting like cardboard. Insecurities , you know. However, that has all changed. I am giving you a link to the BEST chicken tikka masala I've ever tasted... and it's done in a crockpot . What is that I hear? A chorus of angels singing, "Hallelujah"? If you love Indian food and don't mind gaining 5lbs in one sitting then you HAVE to try this. Admittedly , it's a bit of a pain because you have to marinate it overnight, then bake it for 30 minutes before you throw it in the crockpot , but it is sooooo worth it. Serve it over a little basmati or jasmine rice and I guarantee you'll be thinking you're eating a dish that was prepared in a kitchen in the middle of South India. Unless, of course, you're Indian or British ( CTM is hugely popular...

My lovely friend, Myia , just facebooked me a link about how AMC theaters and the Autism Society of America have teamed up to show monthly movies that are "autism friendly". In their words... "In order to provide a more accepting and comfortable setting for this unique audience, the movie auditoriums will have their lights brought up and the sound turned down, families will be able to bring in their own gluten-free, casein-free snacks, and no previews or advertisements will be shown before the movie. Additionally , audience members are welcome to get up and dance, walk, shout or sing - in other words, AMC ’s “Silence is Golden®” policy will not be enforced unless the safety of the audience is questioned. " Oh. My. Goodness. This is fantastic!!! We LOVE movies, but we never get to go because anyone who has a child with autism will understand that sometimes it can be a bit too much. The lights, the noise, the smells... you get it, right? And then our kids have th...

I know that I haven't been blogging much lately. I don't know... I think I've just lost interest in it. In the past, I could blog about mindless, frivolous drivel - like how Sim didn't know who Rick Springfield was or my letter to Michael Phelps or how I'll drive across Texas in order to find a bag of special edition Hershey kisses . I could write about things that were fun and lighthearted - but I just can't find that place inside me anymore. Now, I did nearly blog the other day about how I almost had a panic attack when I thought that L'Oreal discontinued my favorite lipstick, but it just seemed pointless and unimportant - especially when compared to the real stuff going on in my life. I don't know what to blog about anymore. I know that blogs are meant to be for the blogger only and that you should be able to blog about anything you want - but I can't help but recognize that blogging about RAD is alienating me from the people in my real life...

My wonderfully brilliant, funny, and just-plain-gets-it friend, Christine, has some big news to share. As some of you know, Christine is a preacher's wife in a small town in Oklahoma, homeschools five children, and is also a mom to two beautiful RADishes. She's got some pretty cool knock-your-socks-off news. God is about to send her and her family on quite an adventure... Head on over there to check it out. Let's just say that Simeon is very jealous and I can already see the wheels turning in his head...

Shh, it's me. Can you tell? Two of my kids we're having some troubles, so I decided it was time for a daily visit from Forever Mommy from Planet Mom. My younger two have very active imaginations.... so I thought that they might be able to relate to me more if I were to join them in their fantasy world. So I decided to don my cape, tie on my mask, grab a fairy wand, and throw on a beret. The beret really doesn't have anything to do with the costume, but my alter ego likes to think that she's French and really sophisticated, polished, and able to eat all the Nutella she wants without having massive elephant thighs. Like I said... pure fantasy. Anyway, Forever Mommy is always there for her kids. She will never leave them and she will always protect them from dragons (bad people and bad things). She talks in silly voices and relates to her children. She plays with them and slays all the dragons with her magic wand. She also does silly dances and gives her babies jelly ...

Have you heard about KIVA ? It's this amazing organization that supplies loans to people around the world in need. Basically, you can go online and check out the loan requests and donate anywhere from $25 and up towards a specific loan. Once enough money is collected, the loan is given out and the person who requested it can start their business, buy food for their market stall... basically get whatever is needed for them to support themselves in their country. And once they start earning money, they work on paying back the loan. It's really cool. We supported a loan a few months ago for someone in Pakistan to buy a rickshaw so they could start their own taxi business and support their family. So far, we've received half of our $25 back... and we decided to transfer that money and add $12.50 so that we could help someone else get started. This time, however, we wanted to let Noah choose the person to support. So we did some RPM with him... you know, that awesome autism pr...

This one is actually about Noah. We've been driving to Dallas 2x a week for a new therapy that we're doing. And, of course, our lame insurance refused to pay for it. 3-hour RT, twice a week, at $75 a pop for a 30 minute session. It adds up quickly. Anyway, I called their office today and cancelled our remaining scheduled appointments because we couldn't afford it anymore. It broke my heart to do this because we have truly seen some great changes in Noah since we started. But we didn't have a choice. Twenty minutes later, they called back. They'd just gotten the mail in and there was a letter from our insurance company. They AGREED to pay for the therapy. Ya'll, you don't understand. I fight with our insurance over everything. Maybe they decided to cover it because they realized it'd help - or maybe they decided that they didn't want to spend another summer dealing with Leslie-Noah's-Mom. I don't know. But they're covering it. This means w...

I've never been one of those people who adopts because they want to "rescue" a child. I adopted because I wanted to be a mom, and I just always knew, even as a teen, that I would adopt someday. Having said that, last week I found myself thinking some terrible things. It'd been an awful day. RAD behaviors were at their highest and Nandi was testing me every single step of the way. We were running late and I was desperately trying not to lose my cool. I would get Nandi dressed, turn around, and she'd be undressed. Get dressed, undressed, get dressed, undressed. Shoes on, shoes off. It was driving me nuts. And, for the record, I did actually do reverse psychology on her once when she did this. I said, " No problem. You can just ride naked ." Sure enough, she rode buck naked all the way to a friend's house. Didn't bother her a bit. Of course, it didn't. She's a nudist. What was I thinking??? So, I had no idea what to do in this situation. She...

Well, it was clearly premature to start a series of posts about what’s working for us… when it seems the only thing that brings peace and harmony around here is actually not being here. Last week was pretty good, but we were gone sunup to sundown. Yesterday? Eh… not so good. This morning? Ugggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh. But I’ll go ahead and humor you and tell you some of the things we’re trying. First of all, and perhaps the biggest, is that I’m having to change my attitude. I never realized my extreme need to control things until I had a little RADish… who also has an extreme need to control things. You know that book, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff. And It’s All Small Stuff ? Well, I sweat the small stuff. Big time. I’m trying not to sweat the small stuff anymore. That book that I read (the one I hated so much and hate even more because it actually taught me a few things and I really didn’t want it to because I hated it so much. You know, that one?) , well… it kept trying to get me to rec...

I don't know why I have such a hard time blogging about what's going on. If you see me in person and ask me how I'm doing... well, I could very well bend your ear for hours. But to actually sit down and formulate my thoughts into words (when my thoughts are usually a million miles a minutes) and then type it up... I just find it hard. I like my blog posts to have some sort of cohesiveness going on... and these RAD posts are all over the place. Plus, my thoughts and feelings and just everything changes minute to minute. I'm constantly learning and things are constantly changing. What I write today might not be the same tomorrow. However, I guess I do owe you all an explanation of how we realized that Nandi has an attachment disorder. I haven't quite explained that yet. About 6 weeks ago, Sim and I were sitting in bed and just talking about how "different" Nandi is and we started listing all the things she does. Things that other kids don't seem to do....

I've realized that I shouldn't leave two depressing blog posts in a row and then disappear for nine days. Thank you to everyone who emailed me and asked if we were okay. I'm sorry I didn't even take the time to pop on here and post a short, "Hey! We're fine, just a busy week" message. But... here it is... Hey! We're fine... it was just a busy week. Seriously, thank you to everyone who emailed me. Some of you even de -lurked (!) to email me.. and I want you to know that I really appreciate it. The truth is... and it's not that interesting... is that we had a garage sale over the weekend up at our church. It was one of our fundraisers for the India trip and - including the sale - we worked on it for 49 hours total. It wasn't yo' grannies garage sale. Oh no, we do everything bigger in Texas. It was an uber garage sale. And, man, did it take a long time. So that - plus running around to different therapies and other various commitments - mean...

I was digging through the kitchen drawers earlier and came across a stack of photos from when Noah first came home. He was, without a doubt, the cutest little thing I'd ever seen. He had these chubby little cheeks and a smile that could light up a room. But the thing that struck me the most was looking at pictures of us holding him and how he made the best eye contact. One of the things that we're doing for Nandi - in an effort to build attachment - is bottle feeding. I hold her in my arms three times a day while giving her a bottle. She won't even look at me. I hold Eli in my arms and sing songs to him. He won't even look at me. And then I find these photos of Noah - my sweet, little Noah - and he's making the best eye contact. And I can close my eyes and I remember rocking him hour upon hour and feeding him and he would stare into my eyes the entire time.. .with so much love. And then it was stolen from me. Autism took it away from me. My only child who truly bon...

Where oh where Oh where oh where Oh where oh where do I start? There have been so many things on and so many different emotions going on that I am definitely going to have to break down this post into several smaller ones. Otherwise, you might all get overwhelmed... kind of like I've been these last few days. And, let's face it, I'm not exactly known for my brevity, am I? And since I want you all to come back, I'll try to post several little "here's what's going on" posts over the next few days. The first one will just be to tell you what our typical day has been like and why I've not been posting as much lately. Basically, it's impossible to get anything done unless a) the kids are asleep or b) Sim is home That's it, really. Here's a scenario from a typical day... Wake up around 5:30 and quickly check email. Look at Pilates DVD and wish that I could blink my eyes like a genie and have a super hot body. Put DVD down and vow to start tom...

Reaching in the freezer to grab a bag of peas for supper and rediscovering the Dairy Queen Blizzard that you hid in the back a few days ago....