Sam's Prayer Warriors

Just a Little Talk Between Friends

2010-03-08T20:41:00.003-06:00

Climbing Ever Higher....

2009-11-28T22:24:00.003-06:00

the next step

2008-11-11T22:51:00.003-06:00

Isaiah 58...

Healing Scripture

2008-09-29T19:09:00.004-05:00

Along this journey of faith, God has given and confirmed scripture that we should pray over Sam. The first scripture that we were given is from Jeremiah 29:11. The second passage comes from Psalms 107:20-21. The third is Isaiah 53:4-5. The latest passage we have included in our prayer time comes from Psalms 91. It reads, "'Because he loves me,' says the Lord, 'I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.'." Let not your Word return void...

2008-09-17T21:05:00.002-05:00

September 17, 2008

My family went to the second healing service at our church. An altar call was given and all are welcomed to receive prayers of healing given by the elders and their wives as worship music plays in the background. For the week before the service, Sam had been saying "Wake up, wake up Samuel" which reminded us of the stories of the prophet Samuel when he was a boy serving Eli in the temple and God would speak to him during the night. Tonight, many people that love Sam were there in agreement that all things are possible through God. Afterall, He is the God of Israel, of Paul, of Mary, of the women who touched his clothes believing it would be enough and of our Sam...

"I Want Baby"

2006-10-12T15:23:00.000-05:00

Sam has been really showing more desire to interact with his peers!

This is definitely a praise, since as you know, children affected by autism can tend to be 'loners'. In the most extreme and troubling of cases, some kids have been known to avoid contact altogether, even from those that love them most.

We are very blessed to know firsthand that Sam is a very sweet, affectionate boy who wants to interact with others. Even with his little sister.

Last week at school, at one point Sam's class and Grace's class were both outside but still in separate groups. As Melissa and her co-teacher gathered up the kids to march them back inside for more class time, Sam hung back and wanted something. When Melissa asked him what it was, he said,

"I want baby".

At first Melissa wasn't sure what he was talking about. But she quickly realized, as he looked over towards his little sister's class, that he was talking about Grace! Amongst the many cutesy and silly nicknames that we pelt our kids with, I guess we didn't realize that we still call Grace 'baby'. When she told me that, I remembered that a few months ago, when we had to leave Wed. night church in separate cars, Sam was not happy about that and he said "I want mama...I want baby." He also said it again later that week when they went out for recess.

Saturday morning, after taking Sam and Grace to his horse riding therapy, I took them to the park. It was beautiful and sunny out. Sam had previously not liked the twisty tube slides all that much. There is one at that park that he would grudgingly go down with some extensive prompting. There were several kids happily and noisily going down it, including Grace. He seemed to stand there and watch her go down, and then he proceeded to go down it! After he got to the bottom, he stood beside it and peeked up through the opening, to see who else was coming down next. And then he climbed back up and slid down it several more times!

I think the reason he decided to give the ol' slide a fresh try was that he saw how the other kids were having so much fun, including his sister. And he had fun too!

We thank God that he awakens more and more each day to those around him, and that he desires interaction with his peers. We are also very glad that God has blessed him with a sweet sister who helps keep him out of his 'zone'. Not to say that they don't have their territorial spats now and then (they are a brother and sister, after all...) and Grace has a few memories of being chomped on to prove that. But she keeps on wanting to play with him. She serves as a great example to us, because she loves him in spite of his inabilities to express himself. And when she gets burned by it, she just keeps coming back.

Goodbyes and Hellos

2006-09-12T22:07:00.000-05:00

Sam, Melissa, and Grace had their first day of school today! It was the first day of the much-anticipated, much-prayed for Therapy House preschool.

Sam and Grace are both in the class, and they had a great first day. After the morning session, they have lunch, and then Grace goes to 'after care' while Sam has to two hours of one-on-one behavioral therapy. Melissa is an aide to the children affected by autism (they have developmentally "normal" kids along with the autism spectrum kids in the same classroom).

It's a new schedule for us... Melissa has to get up around 6:10 and then leave the house by 7:10 in order to get to the school on time, which is in the TCU area. That means the kiddos have to be in bed MUCH earlier than they're used to. Sam has the hardest time adjusting to that. As i'm writing this, it's 10:12 pm and he's still in his room making noises! (Last night he didn't go to sleep until well after 12 am.) It will get better as they fall into the routine, though.

On a different 'first', we also had our first Sunday helping with the 'Breaking the Barriers' ministry at Richland Hills Church of Christ. This is the special needs ministry that Sam (and we) have been blessed by since we've been attending there, and we've been feeling that we need to be involved in whatever way God wants us to be. Melissa will be helping in the adult classroom, which has around 8-10 students, mostly affected by Down's Sydrome, and a couple have seizure disorders also. They're beautiful people that we've already come to love and look forward to getting to know. I will probably be helping on the classroom floor with the younger kids, going into the classes and helping as needed. Melissa's mom also is going to be doing that as well. Melissa said that as she was there, she had a joyful peace about being in the classroom. That definitely comes from knowing you're doing what God wants you to do (and what he's prepared for you to do!)

We will miss our beloved ones at Fortress on Sundays. We have been there for over eight years! It was hard to leave, but we will still be actively involved and in contact with our loved ones there.

Besides getting much needed therapeutic interaction for Sam, the thing I love about us being involved with the school and the special needs ministry is this:

that we're finally taking the battle on the OFFENSIVE.

The enemy thought he could make us curl up and shut ourselves off from everybody and everything. Yes, we were devastated when we learned that our boy was going to be 'different'. We despaired to learn that the hopes and dreams every parent has for their child, which we always blissfully assume will just happen, were going to be a grinding battle every step of the way for our boy. There have been many times when we wanted to throw in the towel and cloak ourselves in self-pity, misery, and depression. And there are still times when it's hard.

But with God's help and the help of amazingly loving friends and family, we are able to get up, brush ourselves off, and march forward one baby step at a time. We have a faith that is not weaker, but it is stronger. We possess both a desire and an ability to now help others affected by autism. And we do it all giving glory to the God that created us and continues to guard, protect, love, and guide us.

What the devil thought he could weaken, he instead made stronger. He thought he could make use renounce and blame God, but instead we love God even more. He thought he could make us retreat from the battlefield with our tails between our legs, but instead we press bravely forward, knowing we possess the spiritual armor and weapons necessary to triumph.

So please be in prayer about the following things:

That God will bless our family and keep us safe from physical and spiritual harm
Blessings for our marriage and our finances as we deal with high costs associated with Sam's therapy
Blessings for the new Therapy House preschool, its staff and the children
Blessings for the Breaking the Barriers ministry at RHCC and our involvement there
Continued healing for Sam, emotionally, physically, and developmentally...that he will continue to develop appropriate speech, notice and desire contact with people, and that he will flourish in his new school/therapy environment.

Sam's Busy Summer

2006-08-14T19:39:00.000-05:00

Sam and Grace had quite a busy summer! They visited their aunt and uncle in Houston a couple of times, played outside a lot, swam in their grandparents' pool, went to the zoo, and lots of other great stuff.

Summer school for Sam went well...at first the teachers put him in a more severe class, but quickly realized that he needed to be in with his developmental peers, some of whom he had as classmates in his regular school year. He did not seem to regress at all during the two week breaks before and after summer school, even though we had an up and down behavioral therapy schedule, which we try to do everyday.

On Sam's Houston visit, he had fun swimming, but was really afraid of the lake, especially the sea-doos. They tried to get him on one, but he really freaked out and didn't even want to swim after that. He seemed to have problems for a number of weeks with machine sounds in general, like motorcycles and our mower, which he previously had no problem with. We suspect there were sensory issues with the sound of the motors, related to the heavy metals in his system or something.

However, the sound sensitivity also can be a good thing; he seems to respond exceptionally well to music and songs. When we have therapy songs, he gets the concepts in the songs many times faster than by rote memorization. We started occupational therapy, where the therapist tried some sound therapy with headphones, and he responded really well to it. A lot of kids don't like to wear the headphones, but he doesn't mind them. We'd like to pursue a program run out of grapevine where you rent the cd's and he can listen to them at home. Maybe we have a Beethoven or Bach Jr. on our hands, who knows?

We now do horse therapy at Rockytop Ranch here in Keller. He was skeptical at first, even though he's ridden before, but in a few weeks he took right to it. He also loves looking at the farm animals they have there at the ranch, and he's especially fascinated by the chickens.

He swims now with just floaties, and after all the swimming he's done this summer he's gotten pretty comfortable with the water, as long as someone else is swimming too. We use caution with the chlorine in the pool, and his doctor said that as long as he takes vitamin C and takes an epsom salt bath afterwards, it will flush whatever chlorine is in there out of his system. Lots of verbal expression accompanies swimming, and he will say "I want swimminy" repeatedly to voice his desire to take a dip!

We are continuing his dietary and nutritional interventions, in addition to biweekly chelation visits to take out metals...he's still excreting lead from his body in disturbing amounts, but we're just glad it's coming out. And he does really well at these visits, sometimes watching the needle going in his arm with mild interest. (I myself experienced inner turmoil while witnessing this for the first time, but managed to not let it show!)

He still gets pretty hyper, a lot of times we think this is dietary or chelation related. He does this high-pitched scream when he's excited and jumping around, which can be pretty piercing! We're redirecting this by giving him words like "I'm happy!" to say instead of screaming.

He seems to open up more and more to the world around him, and the people in it. He gets very excited around other kids, which we take as a very good sign. On Wednesday nights at church he runs around when the other kids are, and even looks at them. When another kid runs into him or touches him, he smiles and seems very happy. He is also interacting more with his sister, by looking at her and even gives her hugs from time to time. She's also getting very fond of her bubba, and calls for him across the hall in her bedroom when it's bedtime, so she know he's there.

Even at home, he remains very active. He loves to play in the water or sand in his backyard, play on his computer, watch movies, ride his bike and he has been playing with toys more. We found it very interesting that although he had trouble with machine sounds awhile back, now he seems to like car and truck toys.

As mentioned, his verbal expression continues to slowly but steadily improve. He can pretty much say "I want ___" now for pretty much anything. We sometimes have to decipher what word it is he's saying, but usually are able to figure it out. One example of this is when he said "I want Incredibles" (the pixar movie). I'm stoked that he can even attempt such a difficult word! As he notices his surroundings more, he's saying "I want ____" a lot, which we're redirecting to have him say "I see a ____" or "it's a ____".

And this fall, a huge blessing is happening that we're extremely excited about: Therapy House is starting a preschool! And Sam will be a part of it, along with Melissa who will be a teacher's aide. More on this will come later, but suffice it to say that God is EXTREMELY good in providing this, which will bless not only Sam and us but also other families affected by autism.

Please continue to pray in the following areas:
- That Sam will continue to notice others and be motivated to have relationships
- That he will continue to develop speech, in his enunciation of words and his conversational ability
- That his body would continue to heal, especially in the detoxification of metals like lead
- That God would continue to guide us where to go and who to talk to about Sam's healing
- That Sam would have a blessed school year, and that God would bless the Therapy House preschool program

Autism Video

2006-05-26T20:35:00.000-05:00

We were very touched by this video and think you will as well...it really paints a picture of what dealing with autism every day is like.

http://www.autismspeaks.org/sponsoredevents/autism_every_day.php

Thanks, Mom!

2006-05-15T00:59:00.000-05:00

Dear Mama,

I had daddy help me write this because I'm not the best typist yet (I am great at using the mouse though!) so I hope that's ok.

Since today is Mother's Day, I just wanted you to know how much you mean to me. So here are some things that I've noticed make you the best mama in the whole world.

Every morning, you put yummy snacks in my backpack and help me get ready for school, and you help me get on the yellow school bus. When the bus comes back home, you're always there to see me. (And even though I had a great time at school, I'm always really glad to see you).

I don't really like it, but I appreciate that you make those yucky drinks and make me take them. I fuss about it some, but that's just my job, y'know? I know it's good for me, somehow. (And I do appreciate how you always have a cookie or gum ready to help wash that nasty stuff down.)

You get me all kinds of great stuff, like cool clothes, nice things for my room, toys, and stuff to help me learn better. You also get me good things to eat, like rice crackers, cookies, hamburgers, pancakes, jerky, gum, taquitos, and pizza!

I love how you stop and give me attention whenever I need you. Thanks for working hours and hours with me when you could be napping or reading instead, helping me learn things I need to know. You're always there to help me on the computer, even though you're not as good at the computer as daddy. And you give me lots of hugs, squeezes, and tickles, which I like a lot.

You're a lot of fun, too! Thanks for taking me to fun places like the zoo, the park, the creek, both grandmas and grandpas' houses, and to ride horses. And thanks for making our backyard a fun place to play in, because you know I love to do that. And when I get all wet and muddy, you don't even get mad.

Thanks for not getting mad at me when I come upstairs very early before you're awake and jump on you and make lots of noise. Or when I make a big wet bubbly mess in the sink. Or when I spill things or pour things out or break things. (Sorry for all that, by the way). But I know that whatever I do, you still love me just the same.

I hope you had a great day, Mama! I loved spending it with you.

Love,
Your Son (Sam)

"Sam I Am"

2006-05-09T23:48:00.000-05:00

When Melissa suggested we name our boy after my beloved grandfather, whom we affectionately call "Paw-Paw", I was very honored, as was my family. Because he, like the Samuel of the Old Testament, was a strong man of convictions firmly grounded in God.
Names are very significant. God often gave a new name to people at landmark times or moments of blessing (Abram became Abraham, Isaac became Israel) and they always meant something when He did.

Samuel is another biblical figure whose name had special meaning. Long ago a meek maidservant named Hannah prayed long for a son, and God graciously blessed her with Samuel, whose name in Hebrew literally means "Name of God", but can also be translated "Heard of God". We also asked God many times for our Samuel, and we waited for two years. We weren't sure if we were going to be able to have a baby at all; in fact, we were actually in the process of filling out adoption forms when we found out!

Another similarity I discovered between our Sam and the ancient Samuel was a few weeks back at a worship service at our church one Wednesday night. I had found myself struggling lately with the burden of Sam, and something that was said made me realize that I wasn't giving the burden all to God. The thought came to me... "...my yoke is easy and my burden is light". So I decided then and there to "give" Sam wholly and fully to God. In the midst of the peacefulness of that decision, I realized that in the story of Samuel, Hannah also gave her Samuel fully to God's service in the temple.

Yet another similarity has become apparent, and that one is of anointing. Samuel, among other things, had the distinction of anointing the first two kings of Israel. "Anointing" is not a word that I really understood before; I knew that it was some kind of ritualistic pouring of oil on the head of someone who was sick or who was about to become a king. But there was actually a practical reason as well...the oils that were used actually had wellness and healing properties to them. Melissa's parents found out about some of these "essential oils", which we've been using on Sam. Carl used them on his problematic hip injury and has been experiencing a relief from the pain that his prescription medications to date have failed to provide. You can read more about them here.

As we travel down this path, and we have been given eyes to see some of the things God is doing is Sam's life, we realize that God's plan for our boy is much bigger than even we are. Long after we are gone, I firmly believe that God will be using him, as he already has been. He seems to like his two bibles, often turning to the pictures with Noah's animals in them; we call him "little preacher man" when we see him running around with them. He also has a fondness for the bible song that we sing in class, whereas the other songs he's not so interested in. We can't help but look at these things and think that God is planting seeds and will eventually make them grow into something really useful to His purpose.

Unleaded, Please

2006-03-11T22:59:00.000-06:00

As we progress through Sam's healing on many different levels, the addition of chelation therapy has given us some amazing, if disturbing, results.

Chelation has for over 50 years been a time-tested and efficient method for removing toxic metals from the body. It was first utilized in World War II by the Germans who began to see the negative effects of heavy metals such as lead and mercury on people who made submarines. Excessive amounts of harmful metals in the body can cause a variety of symptoms, ranging from things like headaches, constipation, and colic all the way to brain dysfunction, seizures, and in extreme exposures, even death.

The toxic effects of metals are nothing new. In the middle ages and onward, tiny untraceable amounts of extremely harmful metals were used in the black art of assassination. Over 100 years ago, Lewis Carroll wrote of the Mad Hatter in his famous story "Alice in Wonderland"; it was common knowledge that "Mad Hatter's Disease" was an occupational hazard for those in the hatmaking business, which involved mercury as part of the manufacturing process. Lead in paint, pencils, and car fuel has been discovered the past century and steps have been taken to alleviate that adverse metal on the effects of the population.

When we started the diagnostic process with Sam, one of the tests involved sending a hair sample to a lab to be tested. The human body uses hair and fingernails as depositories for unwanted metals, so measuring the metals in the hair is one way of determining whether someone is carrying a heavy metal load.

The results were alarming: unusually high levels of several items, such as arsenic, aluminum, and lead. After more tests to make sure he would be able to adequately handle the chelation therapy, and after healing his gut to a sufficient degree, we begain under the eye of our trusted doctor to administer an oral chelating agent, DMSA.

Sam showed no adverse affects other than brief periods of slight diarrhea and increased stimming, and seemed to markedly improve. After awhile, we tested him again for metals, and he showed a much more normal amount. We also observed that quite a bit of mercury was pulled out, which did not even show up in harmful levels on the original test. We had heard that sometimes metals can hide in the body's tissues and not show up at first, but when the chelator was administered it must have loosened the mercury up and pulled them out.

A few months ago we switched to an IV chelator, which has shown to be even more effective in pulling some metals out. Again he showed no adverse effects from the therapy. He was tested again and the results were stunning: LEAD was leaving his body in THREE TIMES the normal amount!

We are so thankful to God for leading us to this therapy as a path for healing our whole boy. We also are left with more questions than we have answers for...
1. WHERE did these metals come from? (they can come from oral ingestion, the air we breathe, etc.)
2. WHEN did they get there? (it could be from 2 years ago when we believe Sam first suffered his onset of symptoms, but we don't know.)
3. When his chelation therapy has removed the load of metals, WILL our Sam be able to reach a state where his body is naturally disposing of them, as most of our bodies do, or will we always have to administer some kind of "help" like a chelating agent?

While we may never get the answers to the first two, we certainly will the third. Please continue to pray with us:
- Express thankfulness that the therapy has been so successful, improving Sam's condition significantly.
- Pray for continued success in removing the harmful load of metals and other substances from Sam's body.
- Pray for Sam's body to be restored to the way God originally designed it to be, to filter out the metals and toxins without any medicinal assistance.
- Pray for our insurance company to realize the IV chelator it is indeed a "needed" procedure, and to therefore cover their part of the cost of it, because currently they don't.
- Pray for continued insight for our doctor and continued faith for us.

And since I love you all so much, I'd like to impart a bit of advice...i think it would be a good idea to get rid of those dental fillings that happen to be 50 percent mercury. (Please...at least look into it!)

Beautiful Words!

2006-01-22T13:05:00.001-06:00

Sam's progress verbally in the past month has been nothing short of amazing. His expressive labels now number well over 100. (If he sees something he knows the name for, he can say the name of it). In addition, he is finally using his carrier phrase, "I want"... for things he wants. For example, instead of just saying "cookie", he says "I want cookie". The great thing about his carrier phrase is that his mastery of it means he can speak in sentences!

Another great development has been through a program called "Sing to Speak" that Sam's teachers at school started using. They said he loved it, so we purchased the program so we could have it here at home. It consists of a picture book and a cd that is personalised just for him, so the songs help him to say things like "my name is Sam" and "I live in Keller, Texas". He goes nuts for it...he's been telling us "I want book" so we'll get it down for him and put on the CD. His favorite song is about animal sounds. The song goes: "the (animal) says (animal sound)" and the pictures in the book correspond with the animals in the song. So he's been replacing his generic babbling sounds with "the lion say ROAR!" and "the cow say MOO!" Last night in the bathtub Sam and Grace were exchanging meaningful conversation...Sam was saying his phrases and Grace was repeating the animal sounds he was making! Praise God!

ARD Meeting Success!

2005-11-07T10:02:00.000-06:00

Our ARD meeting with the school officials was a success! It was last week at Freedom Elementary, Sam's school. Present at the meeting were Melissa, myself, a Vice Principal, Miss Kecia (his teacher), his speech therapist, a diagnostician, and a kindergarten teacher.

We talked about Sam's progress in the past year and Kecia and the speech therapist showed their proposed goals for his next school year, which they had previously shared with us to insure that the goals they were formulating were the best for his needs. We are incredibly blessed to have them...they are very good at what they do and very dedicated to our boy.

Then came an awesome surprise... they approved for Sam to be in a kindergarten class once a week! This is a great thing because the more Sam can be in a classroom setting with his peers, the better off he'll be when it comes time to really enter kindergarten and it will positively affect his success there. It also means that he's deemed able enough to sit and learn alongside the other kids without being a distraction. A lot of autistic children are unable to do this...they have so many distracting behaviors that it would make it unfair for the other kids and impede their ability to learn. This is Sam's chance in the 'big leagues', and we pray that he will step up to the challenge!

We're so thankful of the professionals God's entrusted to Sam's educational needs, and for a great meeting.

Things to please pray about:

THANKFULNESS for a great meeting, the awesome teachers, and stellar reports on Sam's progress
That God will continue to use the school professionals and give them insight into Sam's needs
That Sam will be able to sit and learn well in the kindergarten class and not be a distraction to the other kids

Sam in School

2005-10-03T09:08:00.000-05:00

After a fun and eventful summer, Sam is now back in school. He takes part in the STACC program at Freedom Elementary here in Keller, which is a program specifically for children on the autism spectrum like our boy is. He loves it!

We started him there last October, and he had a different teacher then. His new teachers, like his old one, are very sweet, very dedicated to kids with autism, and love Sam being a part of their class! Their names are Mrs. Adams and Mrs. Kim. They love Sam, and have said as much. They even said they want to take turns taking him home with them! They've set up a fantastic facility that includes a lot of toys, play centers, and a sensory room. The sensory room is really neat because it has things like a pit of corn kernels and a big swinging platform that can help the kids with their sensory needs. These activities help center them and calm them down, providing opportunities for their brains to organize sensory input.

A lot of Sam's classmates are older than he is, but that's easy to forget since Sam is so big for his age. Several of the boys' families have become good friends with our family, taking part in the boys' birthdays and joining together for play dates. Play dates are very good for our kids because of the much needed socialization practice that they get out of it.

At the beginning of the school year the parents, teachers, and other school staff have a meeting called an ARD to form what is called an IEP (Individualized Edication Plan). The purpose of this meeting is to formulate goals for our kids that the staff will work and report on all throughout the year. Since the needs of our kids are different, every plan is different. Sam's includes things like identifying parts on a doll, imitation, matching objects, following verbal requests, and self-help skills. Sam has just about mastered all his objectives from last year and we are about to meet again to discuss further objectives. The ARD meeting can be pretty stressful and intimidating. We've heard horror stories about school staff conspiring against lone moms who, in tears, find themselves in front of a panel of impassive, emotionless administrators telling her that they don't qualify for services but that "their child will be just fine." Our hope and prayer is that God will use the administrators to enact his will for Sam, and that we will qualify for better speech services for him, and that we will conduct ourselves as informed professionals advocating Sam's care rather than a couple of emotional parents.

Sam even gets to ride the bus to school! We decided to go ahead and take advantage of the offered bus services last year when he started school. The very first day was very hard. Imagine putting your three year old (he had just turned three) who you're very protective of on a bus and watching him drive away. I'll never forget that day, it seemed like a significant landmark of some kind. We got him dressed, put his little "Wiggles" backpack on, and with his juice sippy cup in one hand and my hand in his other, he went out the front door to discover a large, strange, yellow vehicle. He approached it easily enough at first, curious, but when he turned and realized that he was getting on and I was not, his little face was stricken with panic. The bus helper sweetly helped him into his seat and buckled him in, and I'll never forget his worried, shocked expression as the bus drove him away. I was smiling and supportive, but some kind of moist substance had gathered in my eyes as I turned back to the house, telling myself that he would be back in just a few hours. And he was! The next day and every day since then, he gets right on the bus with no problem at all, because he knows exactly where he's going and that that place is fun.

In addition to specialized classroom services, Sam also gets speech therapy and an in-home training program. The speech therapy is the one thing that we really wish was better, since that's Sam's most glaring need which separates him from his peers. He gets one hour a week, and that's not even one on one, its a group session! We are thankful for the fact we do get therapy at all, but we wish he got more. The in-home trainer is great, she comes in and works with him on his different goals.

All in all, we're extremely blessed to be able to be in a school district where they provide a place for our boy to learn and grow in an environment that's tailored for his needs. God was leading me years ago before we even had kids to buy a house in Keller, because I heard it was a good school district. Little did I know that the very school he would go to for his program was just a few blocks from our house. (Actually, Freedom Elementary wasn't even built then!)

Please pray for the following things for Sam at school:

That the upcoming ARD meeting for Sam's IEP goes well, and he gets the services and goals that he needs.
That he learns how to function and learn in a classroom setting, making him ready for normal kindergarten when the time comes.
That he will get better speech therapy, the service which he needs the most.
That he will be an encouragement and a light to those around him.

The Longest Year

2005-07-04T14:56:00.000-05:00

We looked up a couple of weeks ago and realized that it has now been one year since we recieved Sam's "diagnosis". What a long year that has been!

It's a mixed bag, really...we look at the year and it's easy to become very critical of ourselves. Have we done everything we can? Have we taken advantage of opportunities? At this early stage in his life, when his brain is the most elastic and malleable that it will ever be, have we seized every moment available to make it therapeutic for him?

On the other hand, I look back on the way he was then compared to now and rejoice at the improvements. He is much healthier. He can now say words without being prompted. When he is prompted he is much better at repeating them. He plays more. His receptive knowledge has grown tremendously. The other night when I put him to bed, I told him to say "night, night, dada" and he repeated immediately, "nie nie, da da". He couldn't do that a year ago.

We could stress out about every little thing and beat ourselves to death over what we don't do... we were more inclined to do this in the beginning. But the balance we try to find is this: seize opportunities and make plans BUT... allow God to lead us every step of the way. That means that there are times when we take a break from "autism" and simply enjoy our kids. Stop everything and love on them. Grace desperately needs that, and we do to, and Sam definitely needs it.

One year from now, Sam will be much farther along than he is now. We'll look back then and see how far he's come and be thankful then as well. Thank you for being part of it!

the adventure continues...

2005-06-21T22:12:00.000-05:00

We have some new prayer requests. Mike and I attend a support group meeting the second Saturday of each month, ACT (Autism, Conquering it Together) led by two moms. It is a large group of parents that meet and discuss all that is happening in the world of autism. We always end our meeting with an hour long discussion of the latest biomedical interventions available to our kids. It is always an informative time but also somewhat intimidating in that Mike and I are challenged each month to do more in recovering our son. We have recently changed many of his supplements and are researching a different chelation method that is transdermal as opposed to oral so that it bypasses his digestive system which is already compromised. We are also considering giving Sam the vitamin B-12 through daily injections which are proving to have positive results in over 90% of the children using them. In addition to all this, we are also asking Dr. Mahoney about the possibility of Sam's glutathion/NAC being given through an IV. This and more... We are also considering the possibility of doing NAET, a procedure that would boost Sam's immune system through acupressure. Healing his little body has proved to be quite the adventure. Sam begins private speech therapy this week. Our insurance has not decided yet whether his speech is "medically necessary" but we feel that we must begin to supplement the speech that Sam was receiving at school. Please pray that our insurance will cover his speech. We are still in prayer that Therapy House, Sam's ABA center, will be opening a private school soon. When the school opens, they have asked me to come on staff and work at the school. My salary would consist of private, ABA therapy for Sam 3 hours each day, Monday thru Thursday and free enrollment for him in the school. As you can imagine, we jumped at the chance for Sam to be in a private school and therapy. Even as we are very blessed to have the best of teachers in Sam's public preschool, we are looking very forward to this new school. Mike is putting the final touches on a video that will be sent out with a fundraising package in hopes of raising money for Therapy House to expand without asking their families to go further into debt as an average fulltime ABA program/school is close to $50-70,000/yearly. Because Mike and I were trained as ABA therapists and run Sam's therapy program ourselves, we are able to afford his therapy. Many families sell their homes, cars...to run an ABA program for their child. God has blessed Therapy House with some of Fort Worth's best fundraisers and so we pray that through donations we may soon be able to lighten the financial burden for families seeking help. As much as Mike and I look forward to the idea of a private school for Sam, it will mean Grace will be in childcare four days each week. As Grace is so social and lovable, I believe the change will be hardest on me. Please pray that we find a loving, safe place for her to be while Sam and I are at school. Thank you so much for joining our family in praying for our little boy. Our dear friend, Shane Gage, who Sam is partially named after, said that God laid on his heart that "the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away" when thinking of Sam. We pray that God takes Sam's autism away only after His greater purpose is served. We just humbly pray that it be quickly Lord...Melissa

June 10, 2005

2005-06-11T00:10:00.000-05:00

Thank you all for the very heartfelt comments. It is comforting to know that Sam spends a lot of time in God's throne room on behalf of your prayers. Sam had his first official hippotherapy(horseback riding) session this morning. It was quite the traumatic experience for Sam in that he was made to guide, groom and ride the horse. He also had to feed his pony, "Fudge", carrots which he especially didn't like. He did okay while riding the horse but overall it may take a few sessions for Sam to understand what is expected of him. We receive free hippotherapy at SpiritHorse in Corinth, TX. A typical session of an hour-long therapy would cost around 70-100 dollars so we consider ourselves very blessed to have Fudge and all the horse trainers. We thank God for them. Also, this week we met with a biomedical consultant who will work alongside our DAN Dr. in healing Sam's body. Our consultant is an RN who stays on top of all the latest research in the field of autism and who is also personally affected by this neuro-immunological disease in her youngest son. She has suggested eliminating some of the supplements that would make it more difficult for Sam's digestive tract to heal and increased some supplements that would aid the neuro-pathways in his brain and bypass the stomach through transdermal applications. We are blessed to live in a time in which research is being done on the medical side of autism instead of living in the dark ages of the 1970's when they called autism the "refridgerator mother syndrome". They blamed mothers aloofness in raising their children as a primary cause for their child's diagnosis and the therapies they suggested were monstrous. A suggested read, "Let Me Hear Your Voice" by Katherine Maurice. She describes the horrors of "Holding Therapy" in it. God has so blessed us in that we were not handed a list of local institutions and told "I'm sorry, there is nothing we can do" by some psychologist. The tide has turned in the world of autism because the epidemic number of children affected by it. Current numbers point to 1 child in every 160 children, mostly boys...There are several culprits that create the "perfect storm" for autism to occur however many parents are convicted that their child's autism was as a result of the thymerosal(a mercury preservative) in vaccinations. They have a good cause to believe so in that children with mercury poisening display the same list of symptims as our children with autism. A suggested read, "Evidence of Harm" by David Kurby. With all that said, Sam lives in a time when we use the work "recovered". We now know that with intense intervention we can recover kids affected by autism. Thank you God! Our verse for Sam is from Jeremiah 29:11, "For I know the plans I have for you", says the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." We cling to this...Thank you again for your prayers. We love you...Melissa

Welcome to the Battle!

2005-06-07T10:32:00.000-05:00

Our son, Samuel, has autism.

Even a year after his diagnosis (which is a medical term that, like many other ones, don't really fit quite right), that realization still gives me a little sickly feeling down in my stomach. Because there's an unseen enemy that is trying to use that autism to take our boy away from us and lock him away in a prison.

Autism is a prison. It's a prison of the mind. It locks its victims away from contact with others. It prevents an individual from carrying on a normal conversation. It causes them to act strange, even violently, so that people don't want to be around them. It makes tasks that we would consider easy nearly impossible for them. It separates them from those they love and who love them.

I never wanted that for my little boy. Back in the early days of our awakening, we went through a horrible phase of what I now realize was mourning. Because parents assume a lot of things. We assume that a child will be normal, develop speech, say all those cute first words like "mama" and "dada" and "ball", make friends and have sleepovers, go to school, graduate, and some day maybe have a family and bring their kids over so you can spoil them. We don't even really think otherwise. So we were in fact mourning for the loss of what we assumed would be a normal, socially healthy life for our son.

And why wouldn't we think otherwise? He is was very large for his age, in the upper 90 percentiles in both height and weight. He developed very well physically, his motor skills were right on track. He was affectionate and responded to affection. He would look right in your eyes. He even started to say some things. When we would chase him and say "gonna get you, gonna get you" he would say back "gidzu, gidzu!" as he ran. He even said "apple" as clear as day one time that I remember.

We think back on the times we allowed him to just sit and watch TV. "He's such a well behaved boy" was what people told us. We agreed. Yes, he is so low maintenance. We know kids his age who are constant annoyances to their parents, always wanting things, whining, never being quiet. But not him. He just tended to his own little business, in a world of his own. To think of that now horrifies me. Because that "world" wants to keep him there and never give him back.

The change was gradual. He went through what we figured was the "terrible twos", with tantrums and fussiness. While this was not a problem if left to his own devices at home, it was bad if we deviated from his routine or took him places. I remember one terrible night we went out with my family for my birthday. We realize now that he may have been reacting to a world that had become a sensory nighmare for him. Because autism can either make a child hypersensitive to the smallest sounds and feelings, or undersensitized to things as well. He disconnected socially, lessened his eye contact. We waited and waited for more words, but they never did come. In fact, the few words he did say before seemed to be nowhere in sight either. This is what alarmed us the most, and we consulted with ECI, who first suggested he may be autistic. Subsequent visits and testing confirmed this. We denied, then we cried, then we searched.

Two paths of treatment because evident to us. One path was the traditional medical route, which meant prescription drugs, insurance-paid doctor visits, and (in a word), hopelessness. According to the established medical community, autism, while known about for over half a century, has no known cause, and has no cure. It's in the DSM-IV as a psychological condition.

The other possible path, the D.A.N. protocol, was forged by a group of medical professionals whose own children were stricken with autism and who were not pleased with the treatments currently available. It is still being modified, it is brand new, and insurance coverage is spotty if any. They delve into the biological causes of autism. They are finding things like intestinal problems and lingering effects from vaccinations that the overwhelming majority of autistic kids have. And they insist that there is recovery from autism. They also have proof of this. At the most recent D.A.N. conference they featured, for the first time, children who have been recovered (considered "normal").

We, of course, chose the path of hope, and found a D.A.N. doctor near us. He set us on the path, and we got Sam tested. We found he did indeed have some serious issues, such as high amounts of toxic metals, an inefficient digestive system, a compromised immune system, vitamin deficiencies, and severe allergy to milk products. We started him on a wheat and dairy free diet, a slew of vitamin and diet supplements, and are now doing chelation therapy, which is removing the metals from his body.

On the non-medical side, we are doing ABA therapy with Sam every day under the guidance of a wonderfully God-gifted therapist. He sees her once a week and she evaluates his progress and adjusts his program if needed. This helps him in so many ways, he’s making great progress in his ability to learn, his speech, and his general knowledge. Sam is also taking speech therapy and occupational therapy, and we have him in the preschool autism program here in Keller. He also has some incredible grandparents and aunts and uncles and a sweetie of a little sister and other family that is in his corner. He is doing very well – making slow but sure progress. Some days are not so good, some days are better. It's a long jouney with no end in sight.

We are doing lots of things, but most of all, we remain prayerful. Because our war is not with autism which we constantly battle with every day, or the medical community that doesn’t understand the nature of a medical problem that has been under their very noses for years, but with forces of darkness that want nothing more than to take our son away from us and rend our family to pieces. We have come to realize that the physical and mental battle for Sam have direct ties to the spiritual battle that is also taking place.

Satan has tried to use our guilt, sorrow, and suffering to make us fight each other, to blame ourselves, to despair, and to be deceived as to the true enemy. He has tried and failed. Because the One who we belong to is infinitely more powerful that he is. We do still struggle sometimes, but we know who created Sam and that He keeps track of every single molecule in our son’s body. And we know that He has a divine purpose for everything, and that no matter what happens, He will work it out for the good of those who “love him and are called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8:28).

I don’t know exactly what will happen. But I do know that it will be all right because He said so. And I also know that our suffering will not be in vain, because He has a grand plan that involves our little boy, and in due time He will make it known to us.

But we have to remain vigilant and prayerful, because the enemy is at our gate constantly trying to find a way in. This is where you come in.

If you’re reading this right now, you’ve been caught up in this plan.

A while back I was sitting there thinking, why are we trying this alone? Sure, we occasionally ask people to keep Sam in their prayers, and we ourselves pray for him every day. But isn’t part of the purpose of the church to pray for one another? And if Sam is indeed part of a greater purpose, shouldn’t we make a more concerted effort to share our requests? Melissa and I are both introverted people. We like to keep our business to ourselves and not trouble others. But then again, what right do we have to keep it to ourselves when God wants to use our story to encourage others and show his glory by what he is doing for Sam?

So as you receive the email updates, please take a few seconds out of your day to pray for our boy. And visit here occasionally for the updates on how God's healing Sam, and to read the rantings and ravings of parents who don’t don’t know what they are doing but they know just enough. Also, please feel free to click below and comment. I look forward to hearing your thoughts!

- mike