Hannah has had a good week overall. She is still very much struggling with transitions. She doesn't like change at all and tantrums alot when things don't go her way. Her tantrums are sometimes violent, biting herself, kicking whatever is within reach, throwing herself on the floor, etc. Usually, if she is in her highchair (affectionately known as her "straight-jacket" by her mom) and she notices my walking out of the room, she tantrums. She is getting too big for the highchair/booster seat so we began to work on making her sit at the table for a particular activity without getting up. The concept sounds simple but for her it is difficult to sit in another chair besides the one that is just her size that we use for her specific behavioral therapy sessions; the one that she has grown accustomed to. We started by taking the tray off of the highchair and pulling her up to the table. Next we will take the booster seat away.
Hannah moves into her new Sunday School class this week. Annette, our consultant, will be there with her to help her through the activities with the rest of the group. We are very fortunate to belong to a church that values children as much as our church does. Almost the entire church came to our house a couple of weeks ago to discuss with Annette how to help Hannah in a very real way. There were so many great questions from the group. The Sunday after that meeting, two of the ladies in the nursery used some of the techniques that Annette taught them to help Hannah stop tantruming. The rest of the day went smoothly.
Another thing we have started this week is making her say "I want" and then the name of the object or activity that she wants. This has been going very well so far. We have to prompt every word of the sentence but she will get it soon. When she makes the connection between "I want" with getting things that she wants, then she will most likely take off with her language skills.
An activity that she absolutely loves besides watching videos is doing jigsaw puzzles. She is currently doing 25-piece puzzles. Attached is a picture of her sitting at the kitchen table watching Barney and doing a puzzle (she has a uterus, so she can multi-task!).

Hi Everyone! You may be wondering why I would post personal information about Hannah and our struggles with the Autism beast. Well, there are many reasons. Many of you pray for Hannah regularly and I know this because you ask my mom how Hannah is doing; you ask me specific questions about her current issues; you offer to help us in very real ways. For you I thank God. He has truly shown us in the past two years His love through the body of Christ. Some of you I don't even know personally but I feel your prayers. This blog will help you know specifically what to pray for Hannah and our family and you will learn a little more about Autism as well. Also, I am no good (trying to get better) at thanking everyone or keeping in touch with people that I love and people that I think of. Most of all, I want people to know the daily struggles that Hannah faces and the hope that our family has through Christ. Hannah has Autism, yes, but God is bigger than Autism and He is sovereign in everything even our afflictions. Hannah is a precious covenant child, a very very very strong-willed child, but precious none-the-less, chosen by God to be born into our family and He has a purpose for her life. Some of my posts will be praising God for a little accomplishment and some posts will be venting very real emotions that Steven and I feel frequently. It is difficult, to say the least, to have a developmentally challenged child, but we are perservering, 3 steps forward, 2 steps back sometimes, but we are overcoming. Please don't come to final conclusions about us based on this blog alone. This is not who we are; this is just a sampling of our thoughts and our lives. Try to keep the bigger picture in mind as you read these posts. Thank you in advance for participating in this blog. I hope that you will be encouraged, informed, and truly blessed.

The picture above is Hannah in the tub. I am singing the ABC song to her which she loves. She was singing her ABCs all the way to K for a while but she has been counting to 10 lately instead which at first was fun and now it is fun and comforting to her. Characteristic of Autism is that children have language and then lose it, meaning they just can't say those words anymore. Fortunately, with intense training, she can begin to acquire more language and keep it.