Special glimpse.

Joel was diagnosed with autism 15 months ago. If I compare that little boy then to the little boy now, you would never guess it is the same child. We are all truly thankful for the miracle that God is working in Joel's life!!

However, because we are with him day to day and experience a lot of the nitty gritty nuances of autism where he struggles, it's sometimes difficult to see his progress tangibly. As with most things, it's 2 steps forward, then 1 1/2 steps back for him. This can often be so discouraging for me, since I am the one that spends the most time with him. There are things I wish I could do to help him but I've tried being his "savior" and that route is definitely not part of God's plan, nor is it honoring to him. So for the past 6 months, I've been working on surrendering that to God, and choosing to be obedient and thankful for whatever happens in Joel's life.

And now I cannot exactly pinpoint the time, but it seems like in the past 3 weeks he has made a huge leap forward socially and behaviorally--his two biggest struggles. He does fine with adults because of all of the work he's been doing with adult therapists. But aside from Jesse, Joel really could have cared less about kids. He's been going to preschool for 9 months and has only mentioned one girl. At a playground he's completely oblivious to other children around him, let alone desirous of playing with them. He'd rather do a puzzle or throw things then interact with other kids during a playdate. This has changed radically in the past few weeks. He's talked about how he likes all of the kids in his class and named each one of them. He heard some kids talking outside of our house and said, "I hear some new friends. Let's go say hi!" He joined some kids in a pretend game at the park and I saw them all fleeing the slide area yelling, "Hurry, they're coming to get us!" Something has clicked for him in a major way--something that I could never teach him. It's hard to create in another person an awareness and desire to be with another person. Only God can do this, and he has.

So today, I am rejoicing that he has blessed us with a special glimpse of Joel's growth and has given us encouragement to continue on in this journey. Praise be to him!