Sunday Digest 21

I'm in a last minute dash to join the blog hop! I did this last year, and it was so much fun....it's a great way to visit some new blogs and have some new eyes see your blog, too. I didn't see that it was happening until today, so I'm down toward the bottom of the list (240), but still hoping to have some fun with it. The Simple Life is all about parenting a special needs child with a foundation of faith. To learn more about me and my blog, read here. To stay on schedule I will post my usual Sunday Digest, which will also give you an idea of what has been grabbing my attention the last few weeks. Enjoy!


1. I was touched by this tribute from Steady Mom. We are big advocates for adoption. I have several extended family members who were adopted, and my husband was adopted. It can be a wonderful gift for both parent and child. I have high respect for parents who adopt children with special needs. Having "experts" tell you their estimation of a child's challenges and recommending maybe backing out, but instead choosing to forge ahead requires a special kind of courage, in my opinion.

2. There is a back to school give away over at OUR Journey Thru Autism. I just stumbled on this site the other day. They are giving away $250 worth of back to school supplies and they are SENSORY friendly (for sensitive kids). Sign me up!

3. There is evidently finally some hard evidence that raising children with special needs (especially autism) is particularly stressful for marriages. Interestingly there's not really a difference until the child reaches age 8. I wonder if it has anything to do with the child not being able to pass off as simply immature anymore. Perhaps there is a reality check for one or both parents at that stage. We're not there yet (a little more than a year off) but given what we've survived so far I think we're in pretty good shape. Thanks to LauraS for posting about this study at 5 Minutes for Special Needs.

4. We borrowed an Elmo Halloween video from our local library a couple of weeks ago (yes, I do know it's Summer, but you try explaining to my daughter why she can't have a Halloween video just because it's July)...anyway this monster video was included in that video, then Tammy posted it over at Praying for Parker, too. Such a cool message. Even though we're different, we're all still monsters. Why is that so hard for humans to understand sometimes?

5. Ever have one of those days where things start to "go wrong" and you feel like God is shutting doors and then the next thing you know there's a left turn and a zig zag or two and suddenly everything makes sense and you understand that He had a different plan all along? SpecialGathering shares a tale like that here. I loved it.