I am a very tired mom, raising two amazing children and married to a pastor. Autism has impacted our family, but we are not letting it defeat us. My son takes on each new day with a smile. Autism does not define who he is. This is our journey. The good, the bad, and sometimes downright ugly side of autism, but once in awhile, the beauty shines through.
an autism journey
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speaking4sam 
Comments on: "About" (6)
Hello! I am the new children’s pastor of a church… been here 2 weeks. Priority #1 is setting up a special needs ministry within the children’s ministry. The specific need I hope to address at this point is to make a 4 yr old autistic boy feel welcomed and loved. I could really use some suggestions and resources. Would you be willing to email me concerning this? alliek76@gmail.com
I feel like I have written most of these. I am also a pastor;s wife, and mother of an autistic little boy. Thank you for the laughs. It made me step back and laugh at the tough day we’ve had. Sundays are always hard. We have taken some baby steps today, and that’s all that matters. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Wow. This is the perfect blog for me to follow right now even though you are in a different country to us. I am not a pastor’s wife but had longstanding involvement with children’s ministry in our church before our children were born and used to be a regular contributor and attender. Oh what we took for granted! The oldest at age 6, with ASD, has displayed very challenging behaviour at church since about 2 years ago. Little by little, through sheer hard work being his teaching assistant at Sunday School myself, and God’s grace, we have started to reduce the occurrence of meltdowns and help him remain calm and to be content to continue to attend (although we cannot face it more than 2 or 3 times a month). I am a mixture of excited about the special needs ministry vision God has given me for the future, and exhausted from relentless life “at the coal face” here and now. I passionately agree with you about the need for church to have “buddy systems” (some time this century anyway LOL) and am also meeting with the organiser of a large local Christian summer festival to look at changes that could be made there. I really want to be a big part of the solution in my community but find it so hard to see how God will give me the time and energy to make this happen! I think of all the additional needs families there must be sitting at home on Sundays, just wishing they could somehow find a way of coming to church. And I am frustrated that I would like to invite my SEN parent friends to church but am too embarrassed by the lack of provision. There must be more of us but we are so invisible! Would be grateful for your prayers and advice for us in Cornwall, England xxx
Your blog on Faith is encouraging to me today. I am the father of a 5 year old with autism and the realness of autism has impacted us more than it has the past couple of months. I am a church elder and in the past served as a youth/children’s pastor but I have the admit the recent journey has rocked me to where I don’t question my faith in the Lord or who he is but prayer has seemed tiring from not seeing results (in my eyes) and asking the question, Why?
While the blog didn’t necessarily answer all my questions and issues I am dealing with, it does let me know I’m not alone in the journey.
Thanks for your comment Rusty. The journey is certainly exhausting at times, but I agree it helps to know that there are others on this journey. I pray God blesses you and your family.
I am wide awake in the middle of the night. I work in a school for children with behavioral needs. A co worker has a son and a brother with autism. Last night her family had a Christmas gathering in a church fellowship hall. Her family members are all in different places spiritually. Her brother goes to the church that the Christmas dinner was held in. I’m trying to be kind, I’ll describe him as a zealous Christian. Unfortunately, he doesn’t understand autism and during the family gathering asked them all to listen to his burden for the family. It ended up being a condemnation of those family members who have autism. He told them that people with autism were demonically possessed. I’m so sorry about this and want to show the love of Christ to these special caregivers. I happen to work with these two children who have autism she do home visits with one of them. I’m praying for wisdom. Their hearts have definitely been crushed by their own family member. Most of them aren’t believers and I’m so fearful of the way they will see Christianity. Please pray for me as I serve this sweet family. I know that I am there for a reason but also know I am limited by a professional boundaries.