Well HELLO there!

Hello My Blog!!!!

Oh MY has it been a LONG time since I have written here.....

Over a YEAR!

My bad.

Through the years this blog has been many things to our family, and those who read it. 

It has been a way to share our family with friends near and far.

It has been an outlet for my personal journey with God.

It has been a chronicle of our journey with Spina Bifida.

It has been a way to share my passion for pictures.

It has been a chronicle of our family's journey with Domestic Violence and getting freedom from that.

It has been a way to show off my cute kids.

It has been a way to keep people up to date and share prayer requests on Nathaniel's many health adventures.

And it has been a way for me to express my heart in writing, with the hope that perhaps it touches someone right where they need it.

And honestly? I am not sure the direction it will take now, but I do KNOW that God has been calling me to write and share my heart again. He has been calling on me to do this for a while now, and the typical person that I can be has ignored that. 

I have been busy, you know? 

(Yea right, like that is an excuse!) 

And we just moved half way across the country

 (yea... another excuse). 

And... well I haven't felt like I have much to say that will really IMPACT anyone

 (more excuses!). 

I have been doing the silly little song and dance of "you tell me what to write about and I will write". But, as you have probably guessed that didn't work too well either :) 

So today, I have decided to JUST WRITE... and see where the journey goes!

Plus, now we have TONS of friends and family that are near and dear to us, but so very far away, so I thought I would share a little of what is going on in our new life here in Oklahoma! (oh, and my camera has been dusted off, and is back in use, so I have to share pictures too, right?)

In the new school that the kids go to, Nathaniel is in a self contained classroom. This is the first time we have placed him in this kind of classroom with this much support, and honestly I have mixed feelings about it. I am trying to trust the Lord, and go with it. I know he is doing well, which is a good thing, especially after the blow out he had trying to function on the Middle School campus last year in California. But I also feel like he is missing out on some things. It's the juggle and compromises we have to make some times. One of the super cool things that he is getting to do through school this year is therapeutic horse back riding! It has been MANY years since Nathaniel has been on a horse, and as you can tell from his expression, he wasn't too sure about it at first!

 

 

Once they got him all saddled up and ready to go he seemed much more comfortable, and by the end of the session he was jazzed and ready to go back next week!

Anyways, back to the school thing... 

They load all the kids in the class (about 12 students, ranging from 8th grade to seniors in high school) on a bus and take them to a local stable. Then each student gets a 30-45 minute session on the horse. While the students are waiting their turn there is a classroom set up at the facility where the students can see their friends riding and work on their class work at the same time. I personally think this is great for Nathaniel, a very low key way to work on his Sensory Processing stuff. Having a goal of work to do while something very distracting to him is happening.

This week Nathaniel was in the second group to ride, which was very handy for Steven and I! We got to see lots of his session before we needed to head back for Steven to get ready for work. I was super impressed with the volunteers who worked with the students and the calm peaceful atmosphere of the stables.

 

 

And of course I was also super impressed with my big Little Man, who did a great job and really enjoyed himself!

Well....

The good news is that I actually got a blog post up, and half of the battle is jumping back in the saddle and just getting it done, right? The other half of the battle will be keeping myself going and seeing the direction I am to be heading now. But for now I am going to count it a victory and get ready for some fellowship time at home group!

As always, thanks for reading and see you soon (I hope!)