Happy Birthday, Michele!!

My baby girl is 16 today!! It's hard to believe. I don't have any baby pictures on this computer, but she was a doll. She's pretty cute here with Katherine too. It's been a wonderful 16 years. I can't say I have much to complain about with Michele. She started out sweet and peaceful from the moments she was born. (And believe me, it really was noticeable from the moment she was born. The difference between her temperament and Michael's was totally different from birth. He came out "supercharged" and has stayed that way. She came out with this hard to described peaceful glow around her.) She continues to be sweet and peaceful - a joy to be around. She hasn't exhibited any of those crazy teenage girl hormonal episodes or anything else associated with the negative side of teenage-ness(?) She's been a help to me from the time she was a toddler, or before. Since Aaron came 18 months after her (surprise!), she quit being the baby quickly. Although, frankly, I think she's one of those "old souls" you hear people talk about. She never acted like a baby - always seemed to exude this wisdom beyond her years. So she fell quite naturally into the role of big sister and became a "little mother" to the littler boys. She's still filling that role in helping with them. I really don't know what I'd do without her. I can really see God's hand in the design of our family. Any other "configuration" of children would not have worked quite as perfectly as this, especially as it relates to life with special needs. She has been an absolute wonder with Aaron. They've always been very close. She can get him to do things that the rest of us can't. I could go on and on about her, but I'll just say that she is completely wonderful. I really don't know what I did to deserve such great kids. When I hear about people who's kids are complete messes, I know how blessed I am. I mean, I know I did some things right, and I'm an okay parent, but I'm so far from a great parent, I know it's nothing but the grace of God that has carried them to this point in such an amazing way. I will forever be grateful for the blessing of raising my great kids. They are a joy. And Michele is the posterchild for Joy. I'm so thankful God blessed me with the one girl - a kindred spirit in our very male dominated little world. So today, on the dawn of her 17th year (oh dear, I'm not sure I like the sound of that - but I guess it does make 16 not sound quite so bad!), I want to thank her for being such a complete joy and blessing to us. I want to thank God for entrusting such a sweet little spirit to our care.

Happy 16th!!
I love you, sweet 'Chele!!

I'll try to post some pictures of our weekend and party, etc. after I do my taxes. And no, I haven't done them yet. You can see some ballpark stuff on Genny's blog. And now, we'd better get out of town so I can get the dreaded taxes done - bah humbug!!

Okay, this is smaller print on my edit page but it keeps staying big on the post - and I don't have time to try to fix it, so just pretend it's small print.

Autism Awareness Day

Oops, I missed it. The United Nations passed a resolution declaring April 2 World Autism Awareness day in perpetuity with yesterday being the first. Oh well, it's pretty much been Autism Awareness Day every day for the past ten years at our house. It is good to see Autism becoming more widely known and understood, but the only reason for that is the huge increase in numbers of children diagnosed and that is not a good thing. Our life with autism is so much better than some people's, and for that we are very thankful. Aaron continues to be a joy and amaze us with all the new things he accomplishes that he was never supposed to be able to do.

One of his latest things - Upon hearing of Clayton Ross's trip to Africa over Spring Break, he is certain that there must be some way that he can go too. After much explanation of how and why Clayton was able to make this trip, he decided that he'd like to be a missionary so he can live in Africa. We're not telling him yet that Clayton is returning for an entire semester. He might try to stow away. He's talked of living in Africa for a long time. It used to be mostly when he was angry or upset. It continues to be a strong fascination for him.

Finally Michele!

Okay, she's up and running in blog land. Check it out at justachele.blogspot.com
Sorry I've not been around much - too much travel and work. Thank you all for the suggestions. Sharon, you'll see she went with a variation of yours. We changed it a little bit, I think. She'll probably post way more than me, but I'll try to do better.......