Love is enough

I have painted this image twice.
The first time was when I felt the strength of The Son-Rise Program® to heal my son’s severe autism. I imagined how my love for my Son, Nathan, can be poured continuously and abundantly into his bucket. Though his autism may cause leaks, difficulty learning, social skills challenges, I saw that my love for him can be poured stronger than the leaks. Thus, in time his bucket filled to the top and even overflow. Nathan’s self-confidence will be overflowing. True enough, we experience a journey of recovery as we continue to manifest our love for him!

The second image came as I learned about God’s Revelation of Grace. I too was a bucket with holes of weakness, stress and fears as I tried to be a good Mom for my kids. But now I know that God pours His abundant love for me. Thus, it does matter how many leaks I have, God’s love for me is supplied constantly and abundantly. I am overflowing with God’s love for me. Because of this I am even more confident in what the future brings for us!

Tantrum-free dates at last!

Now that it’s so easy, I’ve been super enjoying bringing Amor out!
Going out with Amor used to feel like a date with an oversized terrible-2. I used to feel so bad that I couldn’t handle Amor because she would tantrum, lay on the floor and make a scene to have things go her way all the time. But she wasn’t 2. She was 4..6…even 8 years old. No, she wasn’t trying to give me a hard time. Her sensory processing issues/Global Developemental Delay was simply overpowering her ability focus, follow instruction and to be flexible enough to transition from one activity to another.

As ironic as it may seem, the Son-Rise® technique that has helped the most, was keeping Amor home, playing in her playroom or in the security of our attitudinally Son-Rise home. That “relaxed” the “thunderstorm” in her brain that was causing the sensory processing disorder. The comfort of Son-Rise, helped her brain go from fight-or-flight mode to recovery mode! All the time that we have invested in Son-Rise has been well worth it! #tryabettertherapy

In the photos: I enjoyed my date with Amor and was fascinated at the things she was fascinated about: waiting nicely for her turn on the horse, her confidence on the horse, the manikin that She turned into a giant doll, seeing herself on the security cameras at the training station, chatting on the training fascinated that she knew what station we were getting off. Life is truly a blessing when we count our blessings.

Super flexible at outings

Usually, it’s Ian, my neurotypical Son, who I like to bring along when I’m doing errands. I try hit 2 birds with one stone call these errands “a date with my child”. But since Amor has been so magnificent at going out, following instructions, flexible, not being distracted, I decided she’s absolutely ready to help me with major groceries and have a date! And she was! 
As we paid the cashier, an elderly couple were chasing their grand Daughter. The child ran away while her grand parents scrambled to try to pull her back to pay for the toy in her hands. Looked like a case of “terrible 2s”.  

Having sensory issues and Global Developmental Delay, Amor’s “terrible 2s” lasted past age 3, 4, 5….almost until recently. She’s already 10, but at last, she has overcome her terrible-2-like symptoms. I didn’t image it would finally get this easy to do errands with her. Brighter days are ahead! 

Praise God for the gift of healing! #tryabettertherapy

In the photo: Amor decided to follow me despite the temptation of toys on the shelf.

I love you 

As I left Nathan at his Sunday school, I told him, “Goodbye Nathan, I love you…” followed by a pause. With enough time to process his thoughts, Nathan replied, “I love you.” 😄
At 5 years old, Nathan was so oblivious to the world, he wasn’t responding to his name, it seemed like he didn’t enough know I was his Mom, nor did he know how much I deeply loved him. Today, not only am I able to reach him to express how much I love him, but he actually shows me that he does!

Life is a blessing! 

In the photo, Sunday after church…with Mom as photographer and unfortunately out of the shot.

Motor regression. Can it be reversed?

Nathan’s regression into Autism began after age 2 1/2. Along with cognitive regression (loss of attention, speech and ability to sing, excessive mouthing of objects, etc) were physical/motor regression (lost of ability to play with a guitar and doodle with a pen, healthy daily bowels became chronic constipation, etc).
While Son-Rise has helped tremendously with social skills, I was hoping for more on the physical front. Yes, Nathan has cerebral palsy (inability to move his lower limbs) but there must be answers to his physical/motor regression. Thankfully, I’m noticing that homeopathy, which we have started fairly recently, has been helping with motor/cognitive skills.

Since his regression, Nathan has refused to pick up a pencil or any tools. All toys went straight into his mouth until he was about 6 years old: But before his regression, at age 2 1/2, Nathan was able to doodle and fill a page with colors.

Today, in his Son-Rise Playroom, I decided to go for the felt pens, even if he has rejected it so many times in the past. To my surprise, he was willing to fill a page with colors again and even smiled as I sang while he doodled.

Praise God for the gift of healing!

In the photo: tried my best to capture him and his masterpiece!

Life is a Breeze with Amor

Wow! It’s such a breeze doing groceries with Amor now. 
She was was so good on the bus ride from school, she waited patiently for her favourite tamago sushi, she helped me pick up the groceries and patiently waited in line at the cashier and at the taxi stand.  

When Amor was younger she was very irritable and rigid. It was hard for her to transition from one activity to another.

Thus, an activity like this would be peppered with tantrums and resistance. But today, the only quirkiness that made me smile was Amor asking the same question (or variations of the same question) over and over again and her scratching the seat belt (which I believe helps calms her hearing senses). But I like querky 😄!

Life is a blessing!

In the photo: I was loving Amor’s demeanour as she helped me get the groceries.

Just another one more #AutismRecovery is worth it!

Bears Kaufman told the class that after he and Samarhia witnessed Raun’s #AutismRecovery, through the very first Son-Rise Program®, they decided to help other parents with children with autism. They told each other that if in the next 100 years of their life, all they helped was another child recover from Autism, then their life would have been worth it.
I was in tears thinking, I have been so blessed that they walked the path ahead of us. Their teachings have taken me from a path of depression to continuous hope. Before Son-Rise, Nathan was on his way to becoming a violent child unable to communicate. Back then, I feared and 

envisioned a teenage Nathan, bigger, stronger, more aggressive and I would become the more weak and frustrated Mother who would always be in danger’s way trying to manage his tantrums. But we made an important shift and walked away from that path, now on the road to recovery. Nathan is now the sweetest child, who uses words not tantrums to communicate his needs. Amor is fast catching-up socially and pealing off her irritability.

Bears and Samarhia did not help just one other child. They have helped and continue to help thousands and thousands of children in the autism spectrum around the world!
As Bears shared his humble ambitions, I turned to pick-up tissue to wipe my tears and saw Sam, an amazing Son-Rise Mom, get her own tissues to wipe her tears. 

In the photo: Blessed to be Bears, taking the “Power Dialogue” class at the Option Institute, home of the Son-Rise Program®

Join in their world of autism first

Before I found The Son-Rise Program® I would put raisins close to my eyes to try to trick Nathan to look at me. It was very hard and was emotionally frustrating. But I kept trying because that was all I knew to do to help him. Nathan was so withdrawn and would show no interest at looking at me. He didn’t respond to his name and acted as if he was deaf. It got worse after he ate all the raisins or if he got tired of raisins. He would completely phase out. That was when Nathan was 5 years old.
I’m thankful that I found Son-Rise®, it taught me to make my invitation for Nathan to be enticing yet without any pressure for him to comply. We have learned to join Nathan in his world of autism first. See first photo of me drumming the a ball as he withdrew into his world of autism and drummed his ball.  
Whenever Nathan is ready and gives us the “green light”, we invite him to our world of social interaction. In the succeeding photos, see Nathan’s strong eye-contact and willing engagement. We learned to use his motivations, not my demands (or my raisin tricks), for him to learn social skills like eye-contact and speech. Thus, learning was immediate and permanent.

On this day, Nathan was pretty withdrawn so I happily joined his ball drumming. But I also made fun reactions every time he sneezed or coughed or gave me the “green lights”. This boy, who has blossomed with a cute, mischievous sense of humour because of Son-Rise, enjoyed my slap stick comedy and kept looking at me and checking my reaction immediately after he made intentional sneeze or cough sounds.  

These days Nathan CHOOSES to look at me and even creates his games to get my attention and make me laugh and play with him. 

Life is a blessing! There is so much HOPE for our children regardless of the severity of their autism. 

Overcoming Sensory Issues

As a toddler, Amor used to have so much sensory issues. She refused to wear shoes, she refused to fix her hair and obviously Jewellery were out of the question.
Back then, I never though I would ever have a photo like this, Amor with braided hair wearing bracelets. This morning she asked me to braid her hair and she found her birthday-gift bracelets and chose to wear them.
A lot of Amor’s sensory issues were managed because of our Son-Rise® attitude which helps to provide a physically and emotionally safe environment for her. We continue to give her the reassurance she needs so that she can overcome all of her adversaries.