wishin' and hopin' and dreamin' and livin'

Well.... here it is again. Long time no write. Where does the time go? Will someone please let me in on the secret? Things are settling down at our house- thank you to God! To make a reallllllllly long story short- Jacob was not having seizures. He quite promptly met our $900 deductible in 2 visits- one for an EEG, one for the neurologist and a bonus MRI under anesthesia. We are still getting bills 2 months later. Our neurologist (sent to us by the Lord) has given Jacob the diagnosis of 'Autism Spectrum Disorder,' which is as confusing as it sounds. Basically, there are 5 disorders within this spectrum, 3 of which are Autism, Asbergers and PDD-NOS. They are all similar in appearance but different in classification. For example, Jacob has many of the characteristics of autism but not enough of them to meet the criteria for diagnosis. He is most similar to PDD-NOS which is pervasive developmental delay-not otherwise specified.

But all that to say, he is doing FABULOUSLY! We weaned him off of his meds and tried some new ones with good results, but decided to leave him off of medication for right now. He was doing so much better on his new meds, but spectacularly on nothing. God has so used all of the speech-language therapy, social skills training, pre-school and what we have been doing at home to work wonders in him. He is a totally different little boy. Ask anyone who has known him his whole life and they will testify to what I am saying! There is such peace in our home! I am tearing up right now just writing about it. More on this later.

Keep us in your prayers. There are many deep, dark places in our souls that God is plowing up through all of this. Areas of stubborn rebellion and ignorance. Pray that God would show Himself faithful to us as we struggle through these raw places. Thanks for listening. Andra