Thoughtful Reflections on Faith and Life
When people ask me how I’m doing during COVID-19, they usually are asking about health, finances or church. But when I think of this pandemic, I think of six months of not being able to see our two oldest children. Logan and Abby live in a group home 1.5 hours away from us. Because such … Read More “Good News: Six Months is Over!” »
Normally on Mondays I write a Good News post. The connection with this post won’t be immediately obvious. On the day that I am writing this, it has been ten years since our daughter went to live in a group home. She was only seven years old at the time. Amanda and I have been … Read More “Ten Years Later” »
Today is eight years since our daughter Abby moved into a group home. She was only seven years old at the time. That means she has lived away from us longer than she lived with us. That is hard. It wasn’t an easy decision to have Abby move out of our home. No parent wants … Read More “Today is a Hard Day” »
One of the outcomes that some special needs families experience is that the children move into a group home. How that takes place depends on the situation. Ideally, the family is aware of the need of a group home before hitting a crisis. They can then get on a waiting list and a place will … Read More “Don’t You Dare Judge!” »
Today it is seven years since our daughter went to live in a group home. She was seven years-old at that time. That means that she has now lived half her life away from us. What could cause parents to voluntarily let their seven year-old daughter be taken away? We have had people judge us … Read More “Seven Years Ago Today” »
For some families, it is possible to care for their children with autism at home with just some additional support. In other cases, the behaviours that go along with autism make such a situation impossible and there is a need to send the child to a group home. The second scenario is our story. Twice. … Read More “The Guilt of Relief” »
We have two children with autism, both on the severe side, both considered nonverbal. They live in a group home together with two other children. We try to have them over for a visit every week. This is what an average visit looks like. I show up at the group home. Abby is usually … Read More “What a Visit With Our Children With Autism Looks Like” »
For some parents with children with autism, it is feasible to keep their children in their home well into adulthood. It is fantastic when that happens but it is not the story for all families. It is not the story for our family. In some cases, the situation calls for the child to go into … Read More “Parents, Children and Group Homes” »
I recently blogged on how the group home where our daughter with autism was living was fighting the decision to move her into a different group home where our son was also going. This was creating tremendous stress for our family. I am happy to report that today both our son and daughter moved into the same … Read More “Family Ties – Postscript” »
I am angry and I will tell you why. Let me give you the back story first. Our two oldest children (14 and 12) both have severe autism. Both of them also live in groups homes, although separate ones. That is about to change. The agency that oversees them arranged for both our son and … Read More “Family Ties” »
I made a terrible mistake last night. Right before bed I read the story that Doug Ford had commented on how a home for special needs teens was ruining a neighbourhood. As a father of two autistic children (one a teen and another almost there) in group homes, I was very angry. First of all, … Read More “Doug Ford and Special Needs Teens” »
