Searching the Heart

A journey of faith. To be a vessel filled with His grace poured out for His service.

  • About Me

    I am the devoted wife of the Flying Dutchman and mother of two wonderful children. I have a special place in my heart for children with autism.

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2
Jun 2010
Posted in Christian Life by cvanarts at 9:00 am | Print This Post Print This Post No Comments »

The year 2009 was a difficult year as far as my health goes.  I had so many challenges with fatigue and digestive issues which ended in a breakdown at the end of the year.   Taking on the burden of trying to teach my autistic son was too much to handle.  The more I tried the [...]

For the last 6 months, I have struggled through fatigue affecting my mind and body.  There was an emptying of all strength, draining completely that even a small amount of work or excitement led to shortness of breath. Sleep was shallow and so there was no rest.  I thought that it couldn’t get any worse [...]

25
Jun 2008
Posted in Christian Life by cvanarts at 10:33 pm | Print This Post Print This Post 1 Comment »

Since the peak of aggression last month, Scotty’s behaviors have decreased and a month later, we find him back to his normal self, drawing appliances, catching bugs and asking questions. Sometimes I’m anxious still, thinking in the back of my mind that tomorrow maybe be a different day.
I thank God for the last few [...]

26
May 2008
Posted in Autism by cvanarts at 10:25 am | Print This Post Print This Post 1 Comment »

If you ask most parents, aggression is the hardest thing to deal with as parents. It invokes “crisis” and disrupts family life and learning. For many years since Scotty was 3 years old autism took on many faces - tantrums, head banging, blood curling screams, scratching, biting and sleepless nights. After many [...]

18
Jan 2008

On our recent trip to Mexico, one of the things we noticed was our difficulty understanding their language. Because we only know words, but not how they are put together, we can only understand about 2 words each sentence. For those who cannot speak English it was a struggle to communicate. It [...]

11
Aug 2007
Posted in Autism by cvanarts at 10:09 am | Print This Post Print This Post No Comments »

This is a poem I was given in a support group. It was hard to read at the time, but now I fully understand it. It deals with the acceptance of our lot in life whether that be our children or our roles. We do not design or plan our lives, thankfully [...]

26
May 2007
Posted in Christian Life by cvanarts at 12:42 pm | Print This Post Print This Post 1 Comment »

The life we choose is usually not the path our Heavenly Father would have for us. For instance, I would not choose to have a child with any disability because it would be a life full of struggles, a life far from perfection. When autism came to our lives through our son [...]

11
Jan 2007
Posted in Homeschool by cvanarts at 4:12 pm | Print This Post Print This Post No Comments »

Over the last four years of homeschooling, I have struggled to fight against the urge to teach as the schools do. For one thing it is the only method I’ve ever known and for another that was the way I was educated for 16 years. It is hard to break established habits. [...]

6
Jan 2007
Posted in Christian Life by cvanarts at 4:14 pm | Print This Post Print This Post 1 Comment »

Whenever I face another year, I like to look back and remember God’s many blessings and answered prayers of the prior year. I keep a journal where I write down my prayers, trials, praises and encouragement from Scripture. I find that if I don’t write anything down, (especially my prayers) I tend to [...]

23
Oct 2006
Posted in Autism by cvanarts at 8:57 pm | Print This Post Print This Post No Comments »

About three years ago I was led to NDT by Dennis Gunderson of Grace and Truth books. I was in the trivium pursuit e-loop asking about a phonics program for children with autism. He then recommended a book “Too Wise To Be Mistaken, Too Good To Be Unkind” by Cathy Steere. It was [...]