Mostly Iz

Unexpected Answers.....

Tonight's lesson based on Sunday School homework led to some funny moments and unexpected answers.  First, Isaiah came to the table doing angry lips.  "Why are you doing that?!" I asked. TOO LAZY  "Oh, you don't feel like doing a lesson.  Well, let's just do it and you might get into it after awhile."  *Iz smiles*  

God gave the Israelites food even though they never asked, what characteristic of Himself was He showing in doing this?  HE WAS SHOWING THEM INTO HIS DESIRE TO GIVE LIFE EVERLASTING THROUGH SOLEMN TRIALS AND RESOLUTIONS.

Do you know what English idiom comes from this event?  MANNA FROM HEAVEN

What happened to the manna the Israelites hoarded?  IT TURNED BLACK OVERNIGHT, FULL OF WORMS AND WENT STINKY.

How was God trying to show the Israelites through food that He controlled their futures?  THE MANNA WENT BAD OVERNIGHT OVER ONE NIGHT IN THE WEEK BUT NOT ON THE SABBATH.

How would you describe this miracle to someone who had not heard it before?  MOSES HIT A ROCK TO MAKE WATER GUSH OUT.

Is there a difference between what is easy for you and what is good for you?  Give me an example of each.  ONE EXAMPLE OF WHAT IS EASY FOR ME IS MATH LESSONS.  ONE EXAMPLE OF WHAT IS GOOD FOR ME IS HAVING TO DRINK JUICE.

Do God's plans for good for His children mean "easy" for them?  NOT ALWAYS, SOMETIMES THEY MEAN ALREADY TRYING TIMES GET WORSE.

What are some mercies God gave us today?  THE MERCIES OF COMFORTABLE LIVING

What did you complain about today?  I COMPLAINED ABOUT REMEMBERING TO UNPACK MY OWN MICROWAVE LUNCH  Why?  BECAUSE I DIDN'T WANT TO EAT IT  What did you want to eat?  RED CARROTS AND CHEESE

What can we do to encourage each other to have a grateful heart?  WE CAN THINK OF GOD'S LESSONS TO US THAT REMIND EACH OTHER OF HIS PLANS FOR US.

What are some good and perfect gifts God gave you this week?  THEY ARE MY SCHOOL TEACHERS THAT BELIEVE IN ME, THAT TRY TO INCLUDE MY THOUGHTS IN CLASS ONE AT A TIME, THAT STOP TO WAIT FOR ME TO EXPRESS THE THINGS ON MY MIND.

The carrots answer really threw me....maybe I'll go get him some shredded carrots to try to eat for lunch tomorrow.  It's true that he has been reluctant to eat his same lunch going on 3 years now lately.  Can't say I blame him.

HE INTERESTED MR. SCOTT IN MY LETTER-TALKING

Isaiah gave me permission to post about tonight's lesson based on this week's Sunday School homework.  I used the story of Naboth's Vineyard to lead into the theme of God sustaining the righteous.  A couple of fun moments from the semi-open questions:  

Although King Ahab did not directly arrange for Naboth to be killed, God still held him, and not just Jezebel, responsible, why is that?  SIN BY A WIFE IS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF HER HEAD, HER HUSBAND.  (yes!!!!)  

How do you treat sin in your life?  I TRY NOT TO DO IT.  (lol.....)  

And then came the open-ended questions....sometimes when these open-ended questions give glimpses into Iz's heart, I tear up with joy.  "Write about one way God upheld you this week."  HE INTERESTED MR. SCOTT IN MY LETTER-TALKING.

"How did He keep you from falling or help you when you fell?"  HE HELPED ME GIVE A GOOD QUESTION.

"How did you respond?"  I TRIED TO MAKE A GOOD IMPRESSION.

 

And it seems Iz is willing to drink nearly anything that comes in a bottle through a straw lately; so every time he coughed during the lesson, I had him take a sip of this fresh cold-pressed grapefruit, apple, ginger juice through a big bubble tea straw.  Heheheeheh.....that bottle was full when we started the lesson.  And yes, he's wearing his "lesson outfit."

How is God a Sun and Shield to His Children? GOD PROTECTS OUR SALVATION AND GIVES US REASON TO LIVE.

Really starting to look forward to these lessons based on Sunday School homework, as Isaiah can answer all the open-endedish questions at the end now.  Some highlights from today's lesson about God's promise that He will not withhold any Good Thing:

As Pharaoh demonstrated, going against God always begins with what in humans?  GOING AGAINST GOD STARTS WITH A LACK OF SENSITIVITY TO HIS WORDS.  

What does "generous" mean?  SHOWING KINDNESS IN SINNERS' LIVES

What in the Bible showS you that God is generous?  JESUS DIED FOR SINFUL MEN.

What in the world shows you that God is generous?  SINFUL LIVING IS NOT TOO LATE TO TURN AROUND.

 Is God withholding something that you have prayed for?  YES, TO SPEAK IN THOUGHTS IN MY HEAD, OR TO SPEAK IN THE SAME WAY TO THE REST OF THE STAFF IN MY SCHOOL.

What is your response to God's withholding?  TO LEARN TO LETTER-TALK SO I CAN SHOW THEM WHAT I KNOW.

Why might God be withholding what you are praying for?  TO SHOW PEOPLE THAT PEOPLE WHO CAN'T USE THEIR MOUTHS STILL KNOW SOMETHING THAT THEY DON'T KNOW.

Why don't we always understand what is good for us?  WE INSTEAD TRY TO RESPOND IN SELFISH WAYS.

How is God a sun and shield to his children?  GOD PROTECTS OUR SALVATION AND GIVES US REASON TO LIVE.

 

That last answer was my favourite.  Thank you God for helping him see his life rightly.  Deo Optimo et Maximo gloria.

Oh, and I told Iz today that I wanted to post his answers to a closed set of friends, family and teachers, and asked if that was ok.  He listened intently as I expressed I knew some of these answers were personal and I would understand if he wanted to keep them just between me, Daddy and him, but also mentioned that I had feedback from some moms of other non-speaking kids that they were really inspired by his writing; so if he was willing to share his work a bit, it might help another non-speaking kid get their voices too.  "Ok, Iz, no pressure at all, I just wanted to tell you what's happening when I post your words.  They're your words, you decide.  You tell me if it's ok that I post."  YES

This pic was taken today at school pickup:  Iz wearing Ah-Gong's hat and Daddy's jacket, with after-school apple juice snack.  :) 

Sermon on the Mount Lesson

Too much happened in this lesson to record in a Facebook post.....time to revisit the ol' blog!  

Today was our first lesson non-math lesson with Ms. Elizabeth's new instructions (no more straight spelling, all answers requiring at least phrases, aim for longer sentences, more semi-open and open questions).  The highlights of Iz's answers, from tonight's lesson centered on the Sermon on the Mount based on this week's Sunday School homework:

What needs do you have this week?  THIS WEEK I NEED TO GET WELL.  (Lol...yes, he still has his cold from last week..lol)

Why is worrying a lack of trust in God?  GOD WANTS US TO HAVE FAITH IN HIS PLANS, TO LIVE OUR LIVES WORRY-FREE, TO NEVER REGRET PURSUING HIS WILL, OR THINKING WE MEAN NOTHING TO HIM, TO REALIZE OUR LIVES ARE NOT OUR OWN.  

What needs does your family have today?  WE NEED TO UP OUR IMMUNITY.  (Lol....yes, all three of us still have colds...lol)

When the Bible says that God provides for the needs of His children, does that mean that a Christian will get everything he wants?  NO, IT MEANS HE WILL GET WHAT HE NEEDS.

What is the difference between needs and wants?  NEEDS ARE THINGS YOU REQUIRE.  WANTS ARE THINGS YOU WOULD LIKE TO HAVE.

Think of some things you can do this week to seek God's kingdom.  I CAN LIVE LIFE IN UPLIFTING ATTITUDE.

What needs do you see around you?  REQUIRE THERAPY THAT IS EXPENSIVE.

What can your family do to be "God's hands and feet" this week?  TRY TO HELP OTHERS GET THERAPY.

This lesson took 90 minutes - our longest non-math lesson to-date.  Humour, sensitivity to others, theological understanding - all things Isaiah showed me were in him today.

Soli Deo gloria.

 

 

 

 

 

How God Used Autism to Teach Me to Pray

My twelve year-old son has non-verbal autism.  He is also tall and big for his age.  I've never known a time when doing anything in public with him wasn't hard.  Even when he was a portable baby, his senses easily overloaded, and we often had to make hasty exits to avoid crying meltdowns.  Now when Isaiah's senses get overloaded, he may suddenly scream, stomp his foot hard or flail his hands, making loud "angry noises."  When a 150 pound, 5 foot 6 inch boy with a man-sized voice does any of those things in public, people look.  Sometimes people will do more than look.  Many times in public, we have had what I now fondly call "negative encounters with strangers."  Once a mother on a bus pointed out his noises to her three daughters, copied them, and then laughed together with them when they started copying them too.  Another time some boys in a pool swam around copying his "happy hands" while laughing loudly at him.

But last month, as I was thinking up prayer requests for our church prayer meeting about our upcoming vacation, I thought, why not ask "Lord, please protect us from negative encounters with strangers."  

And, He did!  Since we're out in public so much during a vacation, there is usually an average of one negative encounter every three days.  Anything ranging from people laughing, or pointing, or my favourite, someone walking up and saying something ignorant right to our faces.  We were away for 13 days and over that time, we had ZERO negative encounters.  ZERO.  And four POSITIVE encounters!  On the last day, as we were coming out of the Beauty and the Beast Show (yes, we went to Disney World!  :), a woman approached me and said "Excuse me, but I saw your son's shirt during the show and I wanted to tell you it was so wonderful to see him enjoying the show so much and .... he is glowing!  Just glowing!....."  She went on "I have a grandson with autism and my daughter is afraid to bring him out because of his meltdowns, but I was so happy to see your son out and enjoying things.....maybe one day my grandson can too."  A couple other times, strangers walked by us and said "Love the shirt!" and someone else said "Is that your son?  You two are so good with him.  I'm a middle school principal and I know how hard autism can be in public."

So all this time, the answer wasn't to use my debate skills honed in business school to win verbal sparring matches with bullies?  The answer was to ask God for help?!  Oh.  

Twelve years of trying to fix the problem by myself when I should have just asked Him for help.

"The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent."  Exodus 14:4

Thank you God for preparing the lessons I needed to learn when I didn't even know I didn't know.  

And thanks to our church family's weekly Wednesday prayer meeting group - we didn't have any negative encounters the whole trip, but the positive encounters didn't start until after 7:30 pm Wednesday night (when our group usually starts praying).  I guess God didn't think I would get it if the lesson was subtle.......

Iz's First Time to Comment in Sunday School

Since summer, I've been trying to use Proloquo2Go as a teaching enhancer for Iz - to teach him new words, and how to expand the words he has into sentences.  My theory being that Iz's greatest strength is his visual ability while his biggest weakness is his auditory ability; so I wanted to see if he might learn language faster by "seeing it" via this app.  Yesterday in Sunday School, the lesson involved a scroll (a word I didn't think he knew); so I typed this into the app to speak:

 

After he heard it, he took the iPad from me and typed in this extra word:

He typed that in response to me pointing to the scroll and typing to him that it was a "Scroll."  Here's a pic of the white scroll I was pointing at.   It's bigger than the scroll that the felt character is holding, isn't it!?  So Iz noted that the scroll I was pointing to was the larger one and he wanted to tell me that!

I've been trying to teach him size words for a while, and yesterday was the first time he used one!  Although Iz has typed out non-functional words before, showing me that his head is a catalogue full of words from logos; yesterday was the first time he's typed to me for conversation.

So happy that we live in an electronic age.  Since Iz can't easily say "large" yet; without Proloquo2Go, he never could have told me what he was thinking.

Isaiah Cooks Something for the Very First Time

Today, Isaiah helped cooked something from start to finish, and although he did not eat it, he did serve it very nicely to his classmates.  His teachers said he enjoyed mixing and stirring the ingredients and spooning the finished product into bowls - all big deals for a kid with serious food aversions.  He was proud of himself and noted it in his journal page from today.

It's been an exciting month for us as we've discovered Isaiah is ready, and greatly benefits from, regular sports extra-curriculars.  We've been going to Special Olympics FUNdamentals ball skills, and getting 30 minutes of private Jeet Kune Do lessons with Sifu Shawn, every week.  Isaiah is happy to go to both activities and always leaves them sweaty and smiling!

Regarding all this progress:  Soli Deo gloria!

Theology Moment by Iz

While we were unloading the car tonight, Iz wanted to carry his very heavy laundry-basket-turned-toys-carrier up into the house by himself.  

I said "No, Iz, leave it.  You just carry your backpack and Daddy will come down and get your basket.  It's too heavy for you."  

In reply, Iz sang this song to me from the Bible verse CD he had just been listening to on the ride home:  "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." 

........... lol?  I'm gonna have to think about a good reply....but that was kind of appropriate right??

 

To the right, Iz and Minh at the park.

First Time Telling Us What He Wants to Eat for Lunch :D

For the past week, Isaiah has not been eating the school lunch we packed for him.  Instead, he's been eating double portions of his snack - cheese popcorn.  It was a mystery to us how he could survive on just cheese popcorn all day, but it didn't seem to slow him down in any way, as it was reported he continued to charge forward in his reading skills and also was on his feet in active mode at least 2 hours a day (running, floor hockey, yoga etc.).  Happy and energetic all day.

Then last night, right before he put on his pyjamas, he said to me "Yellow fries lunch bwake."  At first I didn't understand what he was saying.  I thought he was asking to eat fries right before bedtime; so I said "No Iz, no eating.  Time for bed."  "Yellow fries LUNCH BWAKE!" he said.  I paused as I tried to decipher what he was saying since he said it with such emphasis that time.......

Ohhhhhh....Yellow fries.  Lunch break!

"You want yellow fries for lunch tomorrow?!"

He gave me a big smile.  "Yellow fries.  Lunch bwake!"

"You want to eat yellow fries on your lunch break!?"  No wonder he hasn't been eating his lunch.  We've been packing orange fries.

"Yellow fries.  Lunch break!"

"OK!  You'll have yellow fries on your lunch break tomorrow!"  I smiled.  He smiled back.

Today, his teachers reported that he was so happy at lunch and ate everything packed.

Thank God that Isaiah is now able to tell us more of his cares, including what he wants to eat.  In the months since I last posted, new cares he's also told us about are "Hungry," "Aunt Kiin's house," (he wants to go to my cousin, Kiin's, house) and "I feel sad" (when his electronics don't work properly).

And this past Christmas, he actually anticipated opening gifts.  Unfortunately, that totally caught me by surprise and I did not have any gifts prepared for him.  :(  Here is a pic of him at my parents' house opening a gift from someone else, while my adorable nephew, Lincoln, watches.

Also, some time in the past year, Isaiah has learned to sit through Sunday worship.  He is regularly successful doing it now and sometimes, he enjoys the worship music so much, he dances.  I hope he never loses that complete abandon to joy in worship.

So many blessings since last August now that I've typed them all out.  Thank you God.  Please give us more and teach us to never forget they come only from Your Hand.

10 Years Old!

Wednesday was Iz's 10th birthday and we decided to save our party money for Disney, since, let's face it, he doesn't really like parties.  In fact, parties are probably one of his least favourite things.  Christian and I realized the parties were more for us than him and aren't birthdays supposed to be about the birthday boy?!  And what does the birthday boy yearn for more than anything in this world?  Trips to Disney World, of course!  :)

So Iz went to school camp as usual on his birthday.  

But we were delighted to be told at pickup that he had had a huge birthday at school that was capped off with the ENTIRE camp (15 kids plus teachers) hiding in a classroom and surprising Iz with a group singing of "Happy birthday!' when he opened the door.  

One of the greatest comforts God has blessed us with is that, despite Isaiah's reticence for other people, he is constantly surrounded by people who want to be with him.  Especially at school.  We're told by his teachers that he is often requested by other children as a playmate, both children older and younger than him.  Hiding and surprising him was the idea of an older Oakwood student - how sweet is that?!  And he had two turns at the sprinkler in the school playground on his birthday.  During water play, another boy Iz's age held a little bucket for Iz while he filled it with water; so that Iz could dump it on his own head when it was filled!  :)  Then he got a card made and signed by the teachers - the card has a picture of Iz with a little puffy crown sticker stuck on top of his head.  

Isaiah:  birthday boy king for the day.  

At bathtime, we sang "Happy birthday" together again a few times, complete with enthusiastic clapping at the end and correct rhythmic clapping throughout (of course).  I thought it was super cute when he sang "Happy birthday to me-ee.  Happy birthday to me."

I also wished him happy birthday first thing in the morning:  me:  Happy birthday Iz!  Iz:  Go to Disney!

You got it kiddo, the trip is coming.....

Above is his journal page he fills in at the end of each school day.  I thought it was kind of cute that he wrote in "Happy birthday to me" as one of his activities accomplished that day.  :)

Thank you God for Iz, who has taught me that You know what I need before I even know to ask.  Please help us continue to raise him for Your glory.