This is Daddy's favorite hat, but he shouldn't leave lying around because Hannah will claim it as her own. I didn't have to work at all to get her to look at the camera. She knew exactly what to do. This is one of the many small victories that we have seen Hannah win in the past year. I just can't stop looking at the picture because that's my girl...that the girl that I know can accomplish so much in her life in spite of her struggle with Austim. We'll keep working and loving...

Yes, I'm a little scatterbrained. I have journals and blogs and now a myspace page. If I'm not juggling fifty different things I guess I'm just not me. But I won't give up. I'll keep trying to reach the pinnacle of organization! It's been a while since I have sat down and reflected on what the Lord has done in Hannah's life. Someone asked me just last night...."How is it (accupuncture) helping her?". All these wonderful things flashed through my mind but I immediately said, "She feels pain now." As I write those words I am reminded of the few times that I turned my back and Hannah turned the hot water on all the way and did not put her hands in it, but her wide-open mouth; bruises and cuts and spider bites that I would discover as I was giving her a bath. She never cried when blood was running down her leg from the scrape on her knee. She never cried for comfort she just got up and kept going. I don't want to forget how I felt when she wouldn't let me comfort her because my hug or caress was probably actually more painful than the cuts and bites. Now, when she falls or gets hurt, she desires a kiss from Mommy. She desires my sympathy and comforting embrace. Perhaps this would have happened without accupuncture, perhaps not, but since progress is being made I will continue.

Hannah went to an allergy-elimination accupuncturist today. I was so nervous that she would not behave well enough to be able to be treated. Well, she was fine. Steven and I took turns holding her while the doctor tested her for numerous allergies. She was allergic to almost everything that she was tested for which is totally what we expected. The first thing that she was treated for is chicken, eggs, and protein. She will not be able to even touch these things for 25 hours or we will have to do the treatment for those allergies again.

We are two weeks and two days away from Hannah's first accupuncture appointment. Our accupuncurist is an allergy elimination specialist who uses NAET http://naet.com. We have tried diets and supplements without success and post-poned the biomedical route for a time in leui of behavioral modification therapy. While Hannah has been progressing with ABA she has a long way to go and sometimes we wonder if there is more that we can do. We heard about allergy-elimination through some friends and I have read up on it as well. I've heard nothing but good so we are very hopeful that through accupuncture and behavioral therapy and of course God's grace she will eventually lose her diagnosis. It will be a long road. I read about one child with autism who had 156 allergies, but the good news is that his family stuck with it and he is a normal child now. I know that Hannah has many allergies. She continues to eat dirt, chew on metal objects, and does not sleep very well at night. The accupuncturist will attempt to eliminate one allergy at a time. If Hannah starts to show improvement we will likely take her twice a week to speed up the process if the Lord provides the funds.

I am trying not to get my hopes up too much but I really can't help it. This is my daughter. I can't help but dream about who she really is without this burden that she carries. What does she like? I long to teach her things that my mother taught me, sewing, bargain-shopping, cooking and baking. I want her to fall in love one day with a godly man who loves her like her daddy loves her mommy. I won't let my dreams for her interfere with reality but I also won't stop dreaming. If God wants her and us to carry this burden then we will and we will strive to be thankful, but I will not stop hoping and praying for healing. I believe that God wants us to be persistent in prayer just like Hannah in 1 Samuel was. God gave her Samuel who became a prophet of God.

I will try my best to document the results of Hannah's accupuncture treatments here. Until next time...

This is Hannah playing in the leaves. Sometimes, children on the Autism Spectrum, do not play appropriately. For instance, instead of throwing the leaves in the air or jumping into the leaves, they may eat the leaves or stack the leaves. In this case, after arriving home, Hannah got right out of the car and ran straight to the leaves and dove into them just like Garrett or another normal kid would do. So, as I often do when she does something like this, I got my camera out and started taking pictures. She was totally engaged in playing with leaves but I easily got her attention to smile into the camera as well. Of course I was elated and rejoiced in the progress she had made.

Hannah has had a good week overall. She is still very much struggling with transitions. She doesn't like change at all and tantrums alot when things don't go her way. Her tantrums are sometimes violent, biting herself, kicking whatever is within reach, throwing herself on the floor, etc. Usually, if she is in her highchair (affectionately known as her "straight-jacket" by her mom) and she notices my walking out of the room, she tantrums. She is getting too big for the highchair/booster seat so we began to work on making her sit at the table for a particular activity without getting up. The concept sounds simple but for her it is difficult to sit in another chair besides the one that is just her size that we use for her specific behavioral therapy sessions; the one that she has grown accustomed to. We started by taking the tray off of the highchair and pulling her up to the table. Next we will take the booster seat away.
Hannah moves into her new Sunday School class this week. Annette, our consultant, will be there with her to help her through the activities with the rest of the group. We are very fortunate to belong to a church that values children as much as our church does. Almost the entire church came to our house a couple of weeks ago to discuss with Annette how to help Hannah in a very real way. There were so many great questions from the group. The Sunday after that meeting, two of the ladies in the nursery used some of the techniques that Annette taught them to help Hannah stop tantruming. The rest of the day went smoothly.
Another thing we have started this week is making her say "I want" and then the name of the object or activity that she wants. This has been going very well so far. We have to prompt every word of the sentence but she will get it soon. When she makes the connection between "I want" with getting things that she wants, then she will most likely take off with her language skills.
An activity that she absolutely loves besides watching videos is doing jigsaw puzzles. She is currently doing 25-piece puzzles. Attached is a picture of her sitting at the kitchen table watching Barney and doing a puzzle (she has a uterus, so she can multi-task!).

Hi Everyone! You may be wondering why I would post personal information about Hannah and our struggles with the Autism beast. Well, there are many reasons. Many of you pray for Hannah regularly and I know this because you ask my mom how Hannah is doing; you ask me specific questions about her current issues; you offer to help us in very real ways. For you I thank God. He has truly shown us in the past two years His love through the body of Christ. Some of you I don't even know personally but I feel your prayers. This blog will help you know specifically what to pray for Hannah and our family and you will learn a little more about Autism as well. Also, I am no good (trying to get better) at thanking everyone or keeping in touch with people that I love and people that I think of. Most of all, I want people to know the daily struggles that Hannah faces and the hope that our family has through Christ. Hannah has Autism, yes, but God is bigger than Autism and He is sovereign in everything even our afflictions. Hannah is a precious covenant child, a very very very strong-willed child, but precious none-the-less, chosen by God to be born into our family and He has a purpose for her life. Some of my posts will be praising God for a little accomplishment and some posts will be venting very real emotions that Steven and I feel frequently. It is difficult, to say the least, to have a developmentally challenged child, but we are perservering, 3 steps forward, 2 steps back sometimes, but we are overcoming. Please don't come to final conclusions about us based on this blog alone. This is not who we are; this is just a sampling of our thoughts and our lives. Try to keep the bigger picture in mind as you read these posts. Thank you in advance for participating in this blog. I hope that you will be encouraged, informed, and truly blessed.

The picture above is Hannah in the tub. I am singing the ABC song to her which she loves. She was singing her ABCs all the way to K for a while but she has been counting to 10 lately instead which at first was fun and now it is fun and comforting to her. Characteristic of Autism is that children have language and then lose it, meaning they just can't say those words anymore. Fortunately, with intense training, she can begin to acquire more language and keep it.