Luke's Naughty Experience

Well, where to start? Luke has been up to some major trouble these last few weeks. We bought some new little chick's and named them Blackie, Chip, Tweety (yellow), and Grey Grey (black and white). We had to buy a glass reptile cage for them because it was too cold to keep them outside. We also bought a heating lamp which Luke used to burn a mark in our wood floor, but that was only the beginning.

Luke kept getting into the cage and trying to hold the chickens. We didn't have a lock on the cage which was our first problem. (Besides having a black burnmark in our floor) In fact, I am surprised that some of them are still alive, because Luke loves to experiment with them, by throwing them off the front porch, down the window well, and always catches them by grabbing their tails and picking them up. (We have left overs if you need some for your down comforter)

One day I heard the vacuum go on. I didn't think anything of it until I realized that Luke was upstairs and it might be him instead of Tausha. Then I heard the most terrifying sound. It was the sound of a chicken getting sucked into the vacuum hose. (sllllllllllllllllurp) As I turned the corner all I could see was the last 2/3 of Tweety hanging out of the hose, and Luke stemming as he enjoyed the fascinating experiment. There was Tweety plugged up into the hose of our vacuum, and my little autistic boy was laughing thrilled with excitement, to see if the vacuum could gobble him up all the way.

After switching the vacuum off the high pitched squeal subsided and Tweety's neck slowly returned 3 inches to it's natural location. (Don't worry we know several Chiropractors and there was no dislocation or dicombobulation of the spinal chord:) [note: Luke had already swoozen Tweety enough that it's neck was quite used to the lengthened condition]

The next episode occurred when Luke decided to turn our all of our chicks white. (Since he didn't get a "whitey") He dumped a whole picture of water on the chicks and then a 5 lbs bag of flour on them. When Tausha finally made it upstairs she was filled with horror following a trail of flour from the kitchen into the family room listening the the vibrant cherping that usually came when their lives were in danger and Luke was nearby.

There they were covered from beak to toe in a thick floury mire. When Tausha finnally got to them the chicks had churned the mixture into a fine chicken pot pie dough like sustance. The chicks must have of desperately spun those legs of their's because the water marks were up to the chicks necks. Tausha had fun trying to bath and free them from their breaded state.

We won't tell you what Tausha did next or you might turn us into the child protection agency, but after a while on our front porch Luke wripped our wreath to smitherings. (If any of you know a good psychologist let us know. (Oh wait we are already seeing one, but he told us to build a wooded box and lock him in it. Sound like a good idea?)

Anyways, back to the chick saga. Heat lamps, nourishment, and Tausha's loving care brought the chicks their natural state. (and color) It has been difficult for Tausha to bake chicken ever since.

Well the fun Luke had with blackie came to a sad ending only a few days later. Evie, although not autistic, has her own share of autistic moments, had Blackie in a box and decided to see how hard she could shake it. After the wrath of our little red head was experienced, blackie couldn't take it any longer and died. She opened the box and little Blackie wasn't moving. How tramatizing death is to little children, the finality so real and bleak.

Tausha was probably more upset about it then our children. After bathing them, feeding them, watching your children hold and admire them, Tausha had made some real connections with their feathery friends. Besides they didn't complain, snap back, or ask her to do things, like the rest of us did, and now Luke's favorite, the one he had picked out for himself was gone.

She carried Blackie with his head drooping with each step. Blackie had met his match. He had bounced back from the being Isaac's, our 1 year old, hat, bouncing on the trampeling and getting steam rollered by the Luke man, and even the "shake and bake" experience, but now it was too late, there was nothing we could do but tell Luke.

Blackie had become Luke's best friend. Like Tausha Luke liked Blackie for similiar reasons, he didn't ram his head into the walls, like the big bully at Luke's school, he just sat on Luke's lap and let him pet him. (Luke's mantra: I want to love him, and pet him, and squeeze him) Luke had been so excited to call all of his friends in the neighborhood to come see Blackie for the first time, and now we had to break him the news.

When Luke found out he immediately started to cry. He ran outside to see if it was true. He was inconsolable, so I decided to have a funeral service for Blackie. I talked about the resurrection and how, because of Jesus Christ, Blackie would live again. When I asked Luke if he had any words for Blackie before we buried her, Luke said in tears and with the sweetest sincerity I have ever heard come from his lips, "Bye, Blackie!!!"

If only she had killed tweety, chip, or grey grey! We buried Blackie in the back yard and and Evie went a picked a flower, put it on top of blackie's resting spot, she said, "Aren't you supposed to put flowers on where people die." She is the cutest girl and was finally able to do something to help her deal with the guilt her mother had bestowed upon her for murdering one of her children. (I mean a chicken)

My sister Sara and her husband Doug came by to pick us up to go out on the town. Luke asked Sara with again all the sincerity he could muster, "When is Blackie going to be resurrected?"

Sara thought of the highest number that she thought Luke could comprehend and told him, "In one hundred days. Blackie will come back to life in one hundred days!" (We are still trying to fix that explanation:)

Well, after all of the chicken soapora, we thought we would have a rest from all the drama for a while! No rest for the weary Luke was at it again, if he couldn't hold the chickens 24/7, I guess he thought he could start acting like a chicken.

Sunday is supposed to be a "day of rest" right; and Tausha and I usually like to take a nap. We have been able to do so for a few weeks now until this last Sunday. In order to make sure Luke isn't getting into trouble we have to set an alarm for the duration of a movie he is watching. He usually stays very focused on the Tube. So after the alarm goes off to notify us Luke is going to destroy something we wake up, change the movie, and then go back to sleep for a hour or so.

Well, when I got to the end of the second movie time limit, I went upstairs to check on Luke. For some reason lately, Luke has been fascinated with spraying hair products, lotion, perfume, etc., on Isaac's head. He also even put permanent lipstick (max factor 12 hour wear) all over his own face to get a laugh from all of his friends at school, last week, but came home disappointed because none of his friends at school laughed about it. (I am sure thanks to the prompting of Luke's teacher!)

Anyways, on Sunday, I came up stairs and Isaac was covered with some liquid substance, and it was all over the bed. When I asked Luke what he had dumped on Isaac's head he said, "Water!" I believed him and changed Isaac into some new clothes so he didn't get cold outside. As we drove to Nana's (my mom's house) I looked back I saw Isaac's hair standing up. I thought to myself, "that wasn't water he dumped on Isaac!" I asked Luke what he had poured on Isaac's head.

I was horrified to hear these words come from his mouth, "Pee, pees!" I shuttered inside as Tausha added, "I thought he smelt like urine, when I picked him up." I was so angry I asked him again, "Luke did you really pee on Isaac's head?" He smiled and smirked, "Yep!" I was in denial and completely knocked off balance. My sweet trusting Isaac boy, had urine all over his body and didn't even know it.

I couldn't believe that my sweet little Isaac just sat there innocently watching a Sunday afternoon show about Jesus, while Luke stood over him laughing as he dowsed him with urine.

I had to breath deeply and count to 100. I love Luke, but sometimes, I really, really have to pray for charity. I hope someday I will be able to laugh about these experiences! This too shall pass.

The Begining to the Historical Record of our children

I wanted to start updating this blog with details about our children. Not to get advice from those of you that read it, but to document these events so that I can show them to some of them and relish the aches and pains of old age instead of wishing I was younger and experiencing life with little ones. Don't get me wrong, I cherish the quiet moments rocking Isaac to sleep at night, as he softly rubs my arms and hands and snuggles with me. Just today, I asked Isaac to give me kisses and he leaned over repetitively gave me kisses on the lips. These are majical moments that give us hope and gratitude for our little guy!

I love watching Evie's Dance recitals and practicing the swing with her, lifting her over my head, flipping her around my back, through my legs, and seeing her giggle and blossom into the lovely little miss she is becoming.

I love Luke more than life. He and I spend hours playing games on PS2. We have lots of fun going to Maverick, playing video games at Fat Cats, watching Christmas shows, tickling each other, dancing to Christmas music, reading books, and snuggling at night time.

Recently we have discovered that he really has the ability to go on and on about his life!
Just before bed, when he obviously doesn't want to go to bed we can get him to open up and tell us about his entire day. He also likes to talk when everyone is listening, and he has center stage, like the dinner at Brady's when gave us a 30 minute lecture on spiders.

One night he told us about Anica the love of his life, a little girl with a lazy eye he met in his special needs class at school. He said that he had kissed her. He said, "She is the most beautifulest girl I ever saw!" We asked her what she said to him after he kissed her and he said, "Help!" We imagined our aggressive little boy running up to this poor little girl and hugging her and kissing her, while she screamed, "Help!" This had a rolling in laughter as Tausha and I rejoiced in his innocence and aggressiveness!

The greatest thing about these conversations is that we can actually talk with Luke and hear details about what he likes, who he likes, and how he views the world. This may sound like a simple thing but it is a miracle that I thought would never happen.

When we first discovered that Luke had Autism, every video we watched on autism warned us as parents not get our hopes up about them being able to speak logically. 70% of autistic children have an IQ below normal, and therefore we assumed our little boy would be disabled and nonverbal for the rest of his life. So every day that he comes home from school and tells us about going to the zoo, or what he ate for lunch, or that he wants a shark that swims under water for Christmas we marvel and praise the Lord, that we can understand what he wants and what makes him happy.

At age 3 was still nonverbal. So you can imagine our relief and belief in miracles, blessings, and the hard work of teacher and therapists at Carman Pingree School for Children with Autism.

Luke, is the most interesting little boy I know. He shocks us daily with his new ideas, exciting discoveries, and new disasters. The interesting thing about is that Evie and Isaac are just in case you begin to think that it is just Luke. They all keep us on our toes.

The last couple of weeks Luke has painted his face twice. Once with green paint and then later with permanent marker.

One catch 22 T. and I are faced with is how to curb in input of television, movies, and video games that Luke is daily digesting. We must be terrible parents, but sometimes it is the only way to keep Luke out of trouble is to put a show. The only problem with putting on a show, is that Luke takes everything literally. For instance, if Luke was watching, "The Road Runner," he would see depictions of, "Wiley E. Coyote," trying to blow up, push of a cliff, or have cars run over, the road runner.

Can you see the dilemma with having Luke watch these shows? The next thing we notice is Isaac flipping down our stairs. I honestly don't know if he just feel down the stairs or if the Lukster is trying out one of Wiley techniques on our little floor scooter, but you can see our dilemma.

The other day Luke watched, "The Grinch," a completely harmless movie about the importance of accepting others with differences, and having the true spirit of Christmas, right? Wrong for Luke all he sees is a cool guy that can eat glass, jump down shoots, or fly down a mountain.

No, Luke didn't start chewing on glass, but the other day he did come out with his face painted completely green. He is so cute and has so much innocence that it is difficult to get mad at him. We have initiated a token system and he will scream as we pull tokens out of his jar with the star wars character on it, but soon after he will forget the pain of the reprimand and will walk out with black permanent marker all over his face.

For some of you that are wondering, "don't you ever watch your children?" I invite you to take Luke into your house for a week. He is amazingly sneaky and mischievous. Even if we were to stay with him every moment of the day, besides not being able to clean the house, work on homework, or home improvement projects; he doesn't care if you are right in front of him, he will still seek and destroy.

I hope I don't come off sounding negative in presenting some insights on things that happen around our house. I am not writing this for pity, I am just documenting events, lessons, learns, and things that we will someday look back on and laugh.

At times I start to wonder like many of Tausha's friends do that maybe we are bad parents and that our disciplinary techniques are useless. Today at Berrett's farewell Luke the time he
I know that in terms of don't know if going to watch movies with Luke is such a good idea. For instance The first time I

When I asked him why he did it he said that he wanted to look like an ornament. I guess he was tired of his face looking the same so he decided to spice it up, just like he spiced up the Christmas tree.

Halloween Party

Jon's Baptism

Jon's Baptism

I will never forget the baptism of a special needs kid in my class named Jon. When I came into the room he passed right through two relatives (I assume) that had come to see him and he said, “You came, Brother Brinton, you came!” It made my day! He was so excited for the last two weeks, he kept saying over and over, “Are you excited for Jon’s baptism!” He would also say, “Is Courtney, Sara, Matt, Jens, and other names inserted, coming to Jon’s baptism?” Who could turn him down?

It was neat to see several kids, who had worked with him in years past, as well as Sister U. there to see his bright shining face. I am sure his face was tired of smiling because his lip was twitching up over his teeth by the end of the baptism. He was so excited as he played, “Because, I have been given much!” He smiled at the crowd as he played. He has perfect pitch. I remember playing a note with his back facing the piano and then he would turn around again and play that exact note.

Ironically, his mother said that when he was first born the pediatrician said that he would be a very low functioning child, if only that pediatrician could have been there today! I will never forget Mark his older brother, who has been so sweet to him throughout his life; take him down into the water. He couldn’t get through the prayer. I wonder if he felt much like John the Baptist who stated in Matthew 3:14 "But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?"

He cried and then finally lowered Jon down, who was freeked out and nervous. His feet came up so his brother had to lean him back hold down his legs, and then swoop him down and then back up, it was quite a process! When everyone got the okay from the two witnesses everyone's hands erupted into a spontaneous applause. The first one I had ever witnessed in a baptism.

His dad quoted Mosiah 18:11, where the book of mormon people also erupted into spontaneous clapping when they were given the following promise and covenant.

Mosiah 18:8 "And it came to pass that he said unto them: Behold, here are the waters of Mormon (for thus were they called) and now, as ye are ^adesirous to come into the ^bfold of God, and to be called his people, and are willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light;

9 Yea, and are ^awilling to mourn with those that ^bmourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as ^cwitnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death, that ye may be redeemed of God, and be numbered with those of the ^dfirst resurrection, that ye may have eternal life—

10 Now I say unto you, if this be the desire of your hearts, what have you against being ^abaptized in the ^bname of the Lord, as a witness before him that ye have entered into a ^ccovenant with him, that ye will serve him and keep his commandments, that he may pour out his Spirit more abundantly upon you?

11 And now when the people had heard these words, they clapped their hands for joy, and exclaimed: This is the desire of our hearts."

I was so touched by his testimony, because it made me realize that the blessing of baptism are not just for the life hereafter, but for temporal blessing here and now. The Holy Ghost will be a powerful tool in extending the gifts and abilities of Jon. I was so impressed with Jon's dad's testimony and faith. He is planning on giving Jon a blessing in a more comfortable setting, with only family member. I am sure that he will be fasting and praying, so that he might be led and guided in the blessing he gives Jon.

Jon's mother was even more touching. She mentioned how frustrated throughout Jon's life that people would come up and say I am sorry that you have to raise a child with special needs, it must be so difficult." Or "It couldn’t have happened to better people," as if receiving a child with special needs deified their parents.

In contrast to these judgments and uninspired compliments, Jon’s mother stated that Jon has been the biggest blessing in her life. She mentioned that he was concerned about her right at that moment and said, “Are those happy tears?” Jon always worries that his mother is okay, and anytime someone is fighting he will walk up to them and say things like, “What’s wrong? Are you happy!”

He is so sweet and innocent. His mother said one time she was crying profusely and Jon kept kissing her incessantly trying to stop her from crying, since kisses always make people feel better! She said that she finally started laughing because he was so concerned and worried that his kisses weren’t working in making her feel better! It was such a wonderful experience for her to have a son, and by no means has ever felt that she was greater premortally for having the pain and trial of raising Jon, she felt the exact opposite, in that it has been the biggest blessing of her life to be able to raise Jon.

Jon's dad made a similar comment that scared me! He said that one day when this veil is removed and he was able to see Jon in all of his glory, and all of his imperfections and mistakes will be made manifest, that he would ask Jon for forgiveness. I feel the same way about Luke and hope that I can be worthy to stand before him, and pray that he will forgive me for all of my weaknesses, and for being impatient with him, or not spending the time with him that I should have.

The last thing that touched me was a statement Jon's Dad made after he was in a meeting with Governor Huntsman who stated of his little brother Mark, “Mark can’t hate!” Jon’s dad stated of Jon, “Jon can’t not love!”

I will forever be grateful for having the opportunity to teach seminary especially kids with special needs!

Isa. 11: 6

6 The ^awolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.

EFY Experience this Summer!

EFY experience in Cedar City, Utah:

Bad Start:
I have to admit, I really botched the 1st night with the Councilors, BC's (Building Councilors), and Coordinators. The Sunday night devotional with a session director is usually the most spiritual night for the Councilors, because it is a chance for the Session Director to really teach the doctrine of the kingdom, and focus on their issues and things that will lift them and help them with their issues.

I took a different approach, instead of teaching, I wanted to get feedback from the BC's, Coordinators, and Councilors, and so I presented what I thought I would do for the week. That is when the rubber met the road, their looks of disbelief, laughter at the plan, and doubting head shakes were enough to inform me that I wasn't going to be their favorite Session Director. Most of these councilor's had just finished an amazing week with the EFY big wigs like Randy Bird, Brad Wilcox, John Bythway, or some other amazing Session Director that has been doing it for ever, so they were not ready for the rookie, who wanted to change they way they were used to seeing EFY run.

I started off by presenting that I wanted to have a virtue award that each participant would give to someone they really admired through out the week. The boy and the girl that received the most virtue awards would receive a special prize. They shot that idea down, because they said that people would feel bad at the end of the week because no one would selected them, or 298 kids would feel bad and 2 would walk away thinking they were great.

I made a compromise immediately as I realized that they were right. I think that they saw this as a weakness, but also that I was willing to listen to their suggestions, and make changes. The only problem with this start was that every other idea I brought up received the same sort of beating.

My next idea dealt Friday nights, as a councilor I had to breaking up kid making out sessions, inappropriate dancing, and PDA, throughout the week and hated it. (Maybe, I was just jealous I wasn't the one doing it J/K) I thought that I would put an end to that sort of stuff, so I had an elaborate plan to have whoever broke one of these rule stand up and give a 5 minute talk the next day at EFY. They shot me down again and told me that would totally embarrass those that broke the rule and so I had to change that idea too.

After getting shot down several other times that night, I totally lost the confidence of the Councilors and BCs and there was some major complaning and doubt that settled in their minds. I had lost their trust and I didn't have a lot of confidence as I stood in front of them knowing of their worries, especially since it was the last week for most of them that summer and they wanted to end on a good week.

I prayed that night, with great earnestness, knowing that I needed the Lord to soften their hearts. If I couldn't convince the leaders of the youth that I was spirit directed and that the rules I made up were inspired how could I ever get them to enforce the rules with the youth and see any sort of unity that week.

The Change:
When I woke up in the morning, it seemed like the fog had lifted. One of the coordinators stood up in the business meeting before the participants started arriving and gave the BC's and councilors the smack down. He called them to repentance and said that he had heard way to much complaining from the BC's and that if they didn't change their attitudes towards me and the week, they would ruin it for everybody.

It was a powerful talk and it gave me confidence that this wasn't my program, this was the Lord's program and he wasn't going to let me fail. He loved the youth too much and he would provide a way for us to implement some of the ideas I had the night before. What was amazing, was that someone said at another session that their Session Director made the youth leave their cell phones in their rooms so that they wouldn't be tempted to take them out during classes and text.

Everyone thought this was a great idea and it correlated with what I wanted to have happen that week. I presented the, "Go ye forth from Babylon," theme that night at the Family Home Evening message. The councilors all jumped on board. I reiterated the no PDS, making out, cell phones, or listening to music during classes. (I think next year I will make a challenge for them to put away all game systems or bad music for the entire week! We will see how I am received at that session?) Anyways, I changed the idea from giving a 5 minute talk to writing me a personal letter explaining why they had decided to break that rule, and then they needed to write me a page using scriptures, the Strength of Youth Pamphlet, or conference talks, explaining why that rule was so important to live, and a plan of how they intended on living it for the rest of their lives. (This suggestion was also given by the coordinators!)

Since, I learned from just presenting rules on Sunday night, I decided that I would get some youth involved in the sharing on that first night, so that they knew I was interested in them and their stories, and would love to call upon them throughout the week to help me teach. Brother Robinson came down early and said hello, as he was walking with me into the presentation he saw one of his students who had lost her father not too long ago.

Since, I was going to be talking about the importance of good friends, and about the importance of getting to know their best friends (Members of their family) better, I thought that her sharing her testimony about not taking your Dad for granted would be a perfect. I asked her, she said that she needed some time to think about it, and just before I was to get up on stage she said that she would be willing to get up in front of 300 people she didn't know and bear her testimony.

She testified of the importance of appreciating your families, parents, and spoke about them being her best friends! She spoke through tears her desire to take back all of the nights she went out with friends, and at times even avoided her family, and has been alot better about spending time with them. It was a powerful testimony and there weren't too many dry eyes in the audience.

It was a powerful night, it seemed that the councilor's faith in me and the ideas I had for the week were accepted. It was such a rewarding experience to feel like the Lord had soften their hearts and His spirit had been present in the meeting, and all of us were edified.

This first teaching night to the youth kind of just happened. I know that the Lord was involved in the presentation, preparation, and conclusion of the night. It was amazing in fact every talk I gave in EFY was written the night before I gave it. Not that I hadn't prepared all summer to teach at EFY, but on Monday night, I had the participants write down things that they were struggling with that they wanted me to address throughout the week. It was a great tool to use in my lessons, reading from their papers, and Tausha and I even got a kick out of reading them on Monday night. Some of them were pretty hilarious like the one that said, "I struggle with girl, they all want me!" and various sundry comments about friends, immorality, and even some great one's like, "How can I be a better missionary!"

The other issue I had going into this week was that Tausha was not interested at all in going. I had to make all of the tending arraignments myself, and she was not excited about spending the week with me down at EFY with annoying teenagers. She felt like if she was going to find tenders for a whole week that she should be laying on the beach, especially because she wasn't getting paid a dime from the entire experience.

Well what I realized is that even Tausha's got into the EFY experience, I mean, I guess she was stuck with me so I guess she just realized that she might as well make the best of it! She started reaching out to two health councilor's who hadn't been included as much the week before. As they worked on gluing the virtue awards together for me, they bonded and became best friends throughout that week. Tausha even took, "Pride and Prejudice," over and watched it with them one night, while I was visiting the boys in their night devotionals.

Tausha had a great week, she got up in front of the kids and danced, she went to all of the classes, and got so involved with the health councilors that I even had to stop her from talking during one of my talks! (It was hilariously embarrassing, but I could hear her talking louder than I could here myself talking!) She leaned over to me after the week was over and said maybe we can go to Virginia next year.

It took a while for me to figure out how I was going to do present the virtue award because it was so earnestly shot down on Sunday night, so it took me a little longer to figure it out. I decided that everyone would have to earn their award and they would not be able to keep more than one award, therefore as soon as they got their virtue award they had to give it away. That way everyone would be looking for new people to meet, and look for people doing service so that they could give away their virtue award. Participants would then be called up to share a story of someone helping them and so all the kids were reminded daily of the power of service.

The theme for the week was, "Let virtue garnish thy thought unceasingly, and then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God..." D&C 121:45. I had them repeat it every morning and I think most of them had it memorized. The virtue award idea caught on fire! One councilor named Glen had a great group of 14-15 year olds in his group. As they were eating lunch they noticed that their was a guy with special needs who was sweating from head to toe, because kids were stacking up trays on a table. They came in way to fast for him and he wasn't able to get all of the food off the trays, so that he could separate all of the utensils.

One of the BC's mentioned that Glen's group would be late to the devotional because they were helping the man with special needs clean off all of the trays. I announced this great act of service to the youth and told them to follow their examples! It was an amazing week. We only had one kid who almost was sent home. He put a chocolate ding dong in his councilor's oven and turned it on high for several minutes!

The ding dong caught on fire and could have caught the whole building on fire if the councilor hadn't smelt it from all the way down the hall. They entire floor stunk of burnt ding dong, and the ding dong that started the microwave had run out of the building. We tried to be as rough with him as possible, telling him that we would probably have to send him home. He waited as the coordinator's called his parents and the EFY Director to see if we needed to send him home or not.

We asked him what he thought he ought to do to help make up for what he had done, and he said we would be willing to pick up trays after lunch and miss his free time. We thought that would be a good idea and wasn't sent home, but had to pay for the microwave. The funny thing about this idea is that everyone else just thought that he was being nice and serving everyone so he had about 50 virtue awards in his pockets and couldn't get them out fast enough!

Well to make a long story longer, councilor's started coming up to me throughout the week and especially after Thursday night's lesson on the Atonement and said that the had had the greatest week of their EFY experience. I don't know if they were just saying that, or if they really did, but I know that it was the Lord's mercy and help that made that week at least bearable for me. I don't know how I would have done it without HIM!

Thursday night, I shared the analogy of my Autistic son Luke grabbing a pyrex measuring cup that Tausha had boiled in the microwave and burned his hand with a 2nd degree burn. At the insta-care, the lady had me hold Luke down so that she could tare the skin off his hand because it was dead and the blister need to be removed so that it wouldn't get infected and so new skin could grow. As I held my son, I remember seeing his face looking up at me and his eyes saying, "why are you doing this to me, don't you love me?" I felt the atonement in a way that I had never understood before and I know that that story came to me at EFY the night before.

All in all, this week was one of the greatest experiences of my life, and I will be forever grateful for the Lord's trust in allowing me to spend some time with the youth and making a living out of it. I feel so blessed!

The one legged monster

More Videos from our Teton Experience!

This our cute little boy on the ride of his life.

Ride em' cowboy

Watch for the head smack!