. . . and so our middle son must ride back home. . .

So Lourensie had to go back home on the INTERCAPE it was his first time on the bus and so far away from us. It was tears from our side but he was so happy to go. He stayed with dear dear friends of ours. Wilson and Anre Smith. Thank you so much for always been there for our family. Lourensie enjoyed it so much but likely he didn't miss school or his chess tournament which he got 3rd place. So proud of you. Now only 2 weeks left at SNAP and in the Cape. Hubby and I had our special time. One we really needed very badly...

2012 March - April and so the Lord Provided

So now we were in the beautiful Durbanville.... Kids are going to Snap and Hubby and I together with our middle son Lourens jnr have some quality time together. It is very important to have some quality time with the sibling that is normal. Because these kids really take everything out of you. We went to the Museum he loves museums we went to the harbour. Lourensie loves history and he swam in the sea did some surfing and just being a normal boy with normal parents without the 2 siblings that constantly want attention. It was so great just to feel how it feels to be a normal family. Sounds weird hey but I think some of you reading this will understand very well what I am talking about.

So some afternoons we went to Snap and we saw what Ruben and Juanre are capable of. And Wow!! It was unbelievable. Ruben had language drills he did so well there he had the most wonderful tutors. He started to talk. Juanre had the most lovable and the tutor with the most patients I have ever seen Susan you are a star. She taught Juanre to bath to dry herself and she helped Juanre with language drills. Even typing on the computer Juanre wrote sentences. it was unbelievable. At that stage I just wanted to pack my things and move to Cape Town. The help we needed is there it is still there. But reality check it cannot. I was very sad but the Lord knows the day of tomorrow. Right? One afternoon while we were at SNAP we took the kids Lunch and Ruben was jumping on the trampoline after he got of he had his 4th fut and the last one. And again Lourensie was there and caught him and carry him inside so I was in tears, the girls there at SNAP was so so kind and then they made the remark that the Lord gave me a wonderful son in Lourens. He is so caring. And he looks out for his sister and brother. Ooh and there I cry again. Thank you Lourens for been the wonderful brother and son that you are. You are very very special my son. So the following day we had the appointment with the Specialist. Juanre and Ruben had Brain Scans. It showed they had Occipital Lobe Epilepsy rapid Blinking. The Pediatric Neurologist said that Juanre had Autism Spectrum Disorder as well as brain damage. Ruben is under the umbrella of ASD but he has also Paraplegic disorder because his one leg is thinner than the other and also of his language delay. She said it must have happened in the womb and or during birth. Now he had a oxygen shortage when he was born and the abdominal cord was around his neck twice. But he can walk and his speech improved alot. So we are thankful that he can walk and talk and he has the ability to learn read and write. Oh I felt it was my fault what have I done wrong because my little boy was hurt while I was expecting him but my lovely husband assured me that it was not my fault and that everything will be fine. Not to worry we are thankful that Ruben and Juanre are healthy kids. So the kids went to the museum together and to the beach and it was great.

2012 What a good Year.........January - March

Today I decided to have a look at my blog. I really do not get the time to follow it so carefully. :( But today I saw some comments and I realized that there are wonderful people out there who really just wants to know they are not alone in this world with a Autistic child. So let me start with January 2012 so our school started and Juanre was so eager to go to school she event went with me the day before it started I wanted her to see the new and bigger classroom she was happy she went to her own desk because she saw her name and picture she went to fetch some educational toys and built the tower of the castle. and then it was fine. So she went to school but now there were more children and the bigger classroom to overwhelming for her. She just couldn't handle it. She started to throw the toys and the wooden blocks at the teacher and the classmates and I was afraid that she would hurt one the children. So we stopped her school. We wanted the the school to make a plan but there was no plan. Juanre works very very well one on one.

Ruben her youngest brother is fine. He loves the classroom. He was a bit shy in the beginning but he is fine. He brought a wonderful Progress Rapport back home. But his speech still had some work to do. We booked our month at SNAP the previous year so we were going in March 2012

The week before we went to Cape Town. Ruben was playing Nintendo Wii he loves the technology but Toy Story had so much flashing in it and my husband and I didn't like the game at all. We said he mustn't play it so much. The following morning I was busy getting our stuff ready when one of the maids that works for us just said: "Mam" and I went to see what was wrong and there Ruben had his fist Epileptic Seizure. I was in a state. I was yelling and crying because why why my baby too his sister has epilepsy and now he has it too. I phoned Lourens and he was devastated. We were so sadden by this. I had an appointment with the Pediatric Neurologist in Panorama for Juanre. So once again the Lord provided that I made the appointment in advance for Juanre and that made the door open for Ruben. So we went to SNAP on the 21 of March 2012 of we went to Cape Town.

We were traveling the whole 1200km from Kuruman. When we got there we drove through trees. and the flickering of the sunlight triggerd Rubens 2nd Seizure we were driving in the traffic when it happend. Thank the Lord for Lourens jnr. He kept his cool and just let Ruben lay down on his left side. It was so frightening to see Ruben getting it. The Lord provided again. I met the most amazing friends on Facebook on my Facebook page. Autisme Noord Kaap. I phoned a friend to help us to stay for the night. Because I was so excited to go to Cape Town that I got all my dates mixed up. I thought we were booked for the 22nd of March at The Lapa close to SNAP but it was only for the 23rd of March. So my dear friend had her apartment available to us to stay. Isn't the Lord great. So the Sunday we woke up and we decided to do some site seeing. We gave Ruben Rescue to calm him a bit. Oh Boy that was a bad idea. He had his 3rd seizure just seconds after that Rescue. I phoned the emergency number of the Pediatric Neurologist and she phoned me back that was amazing because I thought that she wouldn't phone us back. She send us to a pharmacy that is open 24/7 and they helped us with Epilim for Ruben. So now we were so scared that he would fit again and the poor boy had to close his eyes every time we went through some flickering.. No TV no Ipad No Cellphone games. Shame.

We went to Strand and even there we were worried that he would fut again because of the waves and water.

2011 What a great year

This year started well. Juanre went to school but sometimes she doesn't want to go.

She had chicken pox in June it went well but she had alot of pox on her face. She did scratch them but it is fine.

She turned 13 this year and she is becoming a real teenager with moods and all.

We try to keep on die Gluten free diet it is difficult but we try.

In Sept we had a great fundraising for the class and Annalies van Rijswijk came specially to see the class and join in the party she was so amazed. She stay at pur house and it was great there we saw the Ipad 2 and it is a great tool for an Autistic child. We also bought as an Ipad 2.

So here we are on October 2011

And so the year 2010 comes to an end.....

Yes what a year for us. But we pulled through with the help of the Lord because by ourselves we would never have come through this year.
We were on the farm for a week or so but it was to hot so we came back home. Home-sweet-home.
Our Christmas was very very quite and sad. But we survived. No the day after tomorrow it will be New Year 2011. And it will also be a very quite one.

I pray that we will have a blessed and prosporous 2011. As the same for all our family and friends.

One thing to look forward is a visit from Carol Vikos from SNAP and then in Feb my sister in law's daughter is gettting married so that is great.

Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park

We were in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park last week and boy wasn't it GREAT we saw so many animals. The kids enjoyed it so much. Each morning we had to get up very early when the gates open at six o'clock we were on our way to the water holes. We saw Lions, Giraffes, Springbucks, Gemsbuck, Heyenas, Ostriches, with little baby ostriches, even a Leopard jumping from a tree trying to catch the baby Ostrich and how the parents kicked that leopard and protected their young. It was terrific.
We heard the Lions roar at night it was scary. But we were so happy and cheerfull just to be their.

The weather was great not to hot, we went for night game drives ooooo it was so beautfil specially the sunset. But wait look at my link to see all the photos.


http://picasaweb.google.com/Lourens.Sonja/KGP2010#

Enjoy

Living with an Au Pair

Well is has been a month. We have a wonderful Au Pair. She really knows how to work with the kids. And she makes our lives much more normal. It is very difficult to have 2 Autistic children and try to live as normal as possible. But she helps us to achieve that.

My hubby and I even took a week off and we are spending a well deserved quality time together. Thanks Michelle.

Kids are all well and taken care of.