Nate learning how much he loves to draw!
We have been talking a lot about thankfulness in our house lately. Many conversations have been brought up by trying to explain Thanksgiving to the boys. It has been a wonderful reminder to think about how God has REALLY blessed our family.
So as we are relaxing here at the house Thanksgiving morning, Ryan is cleaning the bookshelf. He loves to pick up and read random pages of my various journals that I started and never quite finished. You pick up a journal and who knows what stage of life and what kind of thoughts were rolling through my head. It is comical but we stumbled across my journal from 2007 and opened it up to this.
“Night times scare me because Nathaniel just does not sleep well. I hear Nate when he wakes up at night and my adrenaline is running and I am ready to get to his door to stop him from head banging. Lord, one day will you please help night time to be a time of rest.” 4/10/2007
We slept till 9:30 this morning! I must confess that this was not the first time to sleep in. We have been able to sleep in for about 2 or 3 months now. (We do not feel guilty from sleeping in this late. We always tell each other that we are catching up on several years of sleepless nights.) Our nights are restful and our kids are sleeping late. Now they all come running into the room (even Noah can run now) and jump into our bed. It is wonderful!
Here is another journal entry I came across.
“Lord, please help Nathaniel to speak fluently and to be a wonderful speaker. Help him to learn words and communicate beyond just screaming. Please do things with Nathaniel that we never could imagine. Give him a soft moldable heart and help him to seek you from a young age till he is old.” 4/9/2007
Anyone who is ever around Nathaniel will tell you how sweet his heart is. By God’s grace he is not a frustrated and angry little guy as some autistic children can be. Nathaniel has made amazing progress communicating. He does not scream anymore. Now, when he wants something or if he hurts himself, he can just tell us. WOW!!! We can see that Nate has so much potential that has not even been touched. We look forward to seeing what God does in Nate’s life. We are so thankful!
We want to thank our wonderful volunteers we have had in the program! THANK YOU THANK YOU, Renee, Brandon, Barbara, Madisen, Jackie, Ashley and Alicia. Thank you for being apart of this process with us. We see little bits of you coming out every day whether it be from the phrases he says like “ahhhh your so cute” to the games he plays of “baby’s head is hot, blow on my hand”. We are really thankful for you.
We also want to thank all our family and friends that have supported us. You have been a huge source of encouragement to us. Your letters and phone calls are a delight. Thank you for your interest in Nate’s well being. With Gods help and your love and support, our dream of a conversation over coffee with Nate will come true for us and for him!
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!
