Nothing extraordinary happened this weekend. We did the average stuff . . . mowed the lawn, bought some groceries, cleaned the house, cooked the meals . . . pretty ordinary stuff. Now, had we gone to the annual fall festival or celebrated a birthday or churned homemade ice cream and watched fireworks, I would have […]
Category: Family Life/Caregivers
Fessing Up
Okay, it’s time to fess up. Those words, fess up, make me picture a little kid who has just polished off the cookies in the cookie jar. When his mom asks, “Honey, did you eat the cookies?” his eyes get huge and he shakes his head “no” while a few crumbs fling off his face. […]
What to Expect When You Weren’t Expecting
I come from a family of book lovers. Finding a cozy spot in some quiet corner of the house and curling up with a great book is a treat for the Swindolls. Shortly before my first child was born, the book titled What to Expect When You’re Expecting was published. It is in a stack […]
A Weekly Gift for You
I often forget to take care of myself as I care for my autistic son, Jonathan. My family often reminds me to tend to my own needs as well. Finding time for yourself seems selfish, but it really isn’t. Caring for my needs is the best care for Jon. Jesus encouraged His disciples, after a […]
Defining Differently
Many words are used to describe someone with disabilities. Generally, the word disabled has a negative tone, doesn’t it? Some may say these folks are needy, challenged, unstable or unable, fragile or frail—words laden with a “less than” label that dismisses the person altogether. So now I’m going to admit something humiliating: before I became […]
Free to Be
Mother’s Day 2012. At our annual lunch celebration, I sat with my niece Jessica and my son Jon. Jessica, only a few months younger than Jon, looked absolutely stunning. Full of life and intellectually gifted, she carries a joyful wonder about life that is so delightful. As I watched her, I began to recall the […]
“Dear Ashley”
The letter fell out of my daughter’s photo album; it was a note I had written to her on her first day of junior high school. For most people, junior high conjures up many memories, a milieu of emotionally laden experiences. Powerful choices are made in those early years, and life in junior high can […]
Reflections from a Persevering Teen
This post was authored by a sibling who lives with a brother diagnosed with complex disabilities. Originally, this was a college English essay I was asked to review. The author paints a painfully vivid picture of truth: support for the whole family is often overlooked. For this reason, I hope this post sheds light on […]
Reality at Its Best
I had become a statistic. Again and again, I had heard about the extremely high divorce rate among couples supporting a disabled loved one. And then I joined that “extremely high” category—a divorced mom with children ages 8, 12, and 13. The years as a single parent were difficult. Misunderstanding, judgment, and condemnation had driven […]
Soul Truth
You won’t believe what happened in a very formal church, several years ago. My son, Jonathan, not quite one year old, had the fantastic gift of throwing up everything he ate. So much so that I thought I would catch a lung at some point. I had moved to Dallas several years before and […]
Porcupineish
I woke up on the wrong side of the bed recently, which is a nice way of saying I was cranky. It hadn’t been a superb week, so perhaps my snappish self emerged from hibernation that morning. By sundown, my attitude had gone from snappish to cantankerous to pretty much porcupineish. Usually, I try to […]
Ageless
It’s confession time. I am now 44 years old . . . I think. I remember at age 13 thinking that people in their 40s had reached the summit of being “over the hill” and were gaining speed down the back side of life. Older people (ha! those 40-somethings) seemed to my 13-year-old mind to be constantly irritated, as […]