Moving again

Our lease is up at the place we are renting in the country, on the six acres.

We are moving back into town, back into the neighborhood we lived in when we first moved to Amarillo.

Someday we will find our farm or land on which to build our farm.

My first born turns 21

She went and did it! Katie turned 21 today. I just can't believe it. Here's a photo of her a few weeks before her birthday.

Here's the afghan I made for Katie's birthday gift. I also purchased a couple of things for her, but this I made myself so she'd have something special for her 21st.

She loves camouflage and her favorite color is pink. She really loves it!

Inspiration

When we lived in the Houston area, one of Gregory's therapists gave us this story (for lack of a better word). It was soon after Gregory's formal diagnosis of autism, and she knew we could use some inspiration.

"The Beauty of Holland" by Emily Perl Kingsley

"I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability----to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this...

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip---to Italy. You buy a bunch of guidebooks and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, 'Welcome to Holland.'

'Holland?!?' you say. 'What do you mean, Holland? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy.'

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guidebooks. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you never would have met.

It's just a different place. It's slower paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around, and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills. Holland has tulips. Holland has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy, and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life you will say 'Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned.'

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever go away, because the loss of that dream is a significant loss.

But if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things about Holland."

We keep a copy of this on the refrigerator. It's our inspiration on bad days. A reminder that Gregory is, indeed, a very special child.

Sunshine...finally

We haven't seen the sun up here in the Texas Panhandle since Friday.

It has rained "cats and dogs" steadily for 4 days! This is so unreal for here. We are definitely not in a drought. Last I heard, 2 nights ago, Amarillo had a 3 inch surplus of rain.

We've had an early and WONDERFUL fall! Mild temperatures, fantastic fall flowers and the foliage is starting to turn.

Now it's cold! For 2 days, it didn't get out of the 40's for daytime high temperatures. That's crazy in mid-October. Locals are saying that this winter's going to be very wet, that we'll be getting lots of snow. Bring it on, baby!!! I love the snow!

Snow is great...as long as it's followed by sunshine!

The sun is shining warmly today and we'll finally be getting out of the house! YAY!!!

Glorious day

We have been waiting since April for a large sum that is owed us on Gregory's SSI disability. I have heard from other parents of Autistic children that many of them have never received their back pay, or it was paid months after the date they were told it would be paid.

We have been in such turmoil with this. We were told "6 months" when he was approved in April. I have called 5 times in the past 3 weeks to verify this payment will be paid in Oct as we were told. Never a return call...which is typical of our SS office. They are horrible up here.

Well, glory be!! The direct deposit hit today, just as promised.

I can't tell you all how much stress is now off our family.

It is truly a glorious day! We will now actually have a "cushion" in the bank for emergencies, etc.