About the house

Miriam has autism.  It is amazing how many different areas that it affects her life.  On the one hand, it is not her, just something that she has.  On the other, it is hard to separate who she is from it.  This is a very accurate photo of her in that it both shows how beautiful she is and also how wild she almost always looks.  :-)  She has many challenges ahead of her, but I will continue helping her as best as I can.

This is our sweet dog, Charlie.  Aaron gave him to me as a gift in March, 1996.  That was before we had any children.  He's been with us through all 10 of our children and through 7 moves.  He has been an absolutely wonderful dog.  He's now experiencing a lot of health problems and I am afraid that it will soon be time to tell him good-bye.  He will be greatly missed.

Thomas has Asperger's.  Among other things that he loves doing, one of his favorites is playing with modeling clay.  This is a photo of his desk.  It almost always looks fairly similar to this with slight variations.  He does all sorts of imaginative play with his modeling clay.  The things which look somewhat like worms are the people in his stories.  You'll notice the numbers, too.  Thomas has had a great interest in numbers and a love of math since he was just a toddler.  In fact he could count to 100 before he could answer the question, "What is your name?"

This is Naomi Ruth making pizza for the family on Friday night.  We have enjoyed our Friday night pizza tradition for years.  Usually, she makes the crust totally from scratch, starting with grinding the wheat.  This time, she's going with a much easier version.  I love coupon shopping and got a great deal at Kroger on Pillsbury pizza crusts.  Naomi Ruth has always been a very hands on kind of girl and loves the feel of the dough on her hands.

This is me holding Benjamin.  While he is my 10th child, he is my 7th by birth.  By this time around, I am much more aware of how very fleeting this stage of childhood is.  I treasure the time that I am able to spend holding him, snuggling him, nursing him, and playing little baby games with him.  I sometimes find myself wondering if he will be my last.  Only God can answer that question as we always leave all matters of family planning in His very capable hands.

My Dad will arrive this afternoon.  I'm really looking forward to seeing him!  He'll be here until Thursday and then will drive Thomas and Stephen to Washington D.C. for a fantastic experience there.  My Mom will meet him there and they will return on Sunday.  While there, they'll get to have dinner with my brother and his family in northern Virginia and stay that night with them.  We've been doing a big American history unit study for the last month in preparation for this wonderful opportunity that my parents are blessing them with.  Right now, the children are having a fun end to their study by watching, "This Is America Charlie Brown."

Love, Dawn