Sundays in Church

We try to take Juanre to Church but sometimes it is very difficult for us. She doesn't sit still. But since the beginning if this year we went to Church and amazingly she sat still for about 1 hour. Then she starts to pull her brothers hair. Or put het finger in her fathers nose, ears or mouth which is very frustrating. It also disturbs the other people for then she starts so laugh very load, oooeeee and then comes the stare. Everybody close to us stares at her. I hate it. Then I take the car keys and very quietly Juanre and I leave the sermon while preacher is preaching and she sits in the car. It is like her comfort zone. I then go back to the church and try to listen what the preacher is preaching at the same time I am worried about Juanre in the car, but she is more than fine, she sits there drinking her water and playing with her beads which she makes braclets of.

But Yesterdag she was so angry and annoying she cried from 12 o'clock until 9 o'clock that evening. I nearly run away. All about the dam cartoon Tom and Jerry which we do not want her to look at because the she gets that funny look in her eyes and she just want to hit us or scratch us but in a way that she wants to hurt us. I gave her the meds that usually makes her calm but not this time she was like never before. Like Crazy. After 21:00 I eventually gave her Stopain and she fell asleep. Lourens and I we were so tired of all this emotional stress. Yesterdays my father was 3 years with the Lord. And it was 3 years that Lord gave Juanre back to us. After that operation where she nearly died, due to dr's error.

On a lighter note.

Ruben can make coffee he can make scrabbled eggs and baked eggs, toast bread. He can even make french fries (chips) so yesterday we asked him to make us some coffee after breakfast, he puts in the coffee and the sugar, but then the kettle was a bit to heavy for him, so he yelled: "Daddy come!"
Which Lourens replied: " Your brother will help you. "
Ruben then said: "No! Not Lourenssss! you daddy you."
Lourens snr said: "Mommy and I are talking an you can do it."
Ruben then came to the door which led to our veranda were we sat and said: "I quit! "

We laughed so it was so adorable.

Well there is really never a dull moment in our house.

2013 New Year New Challanges but with the Lord Jesus we can do anything.

Yes, here we are in 2013.

We had a lovely holiday. We worked very hard on the farm and it was very hot some days even 47 degrees Celsius. The aircon worked overtime. But thank the Lord Juanre did not had 1 epileptic seizure. Then we went to Three Rivers Vereeniging the help my brother sorting out his house. He still can't get over my dad's death.

We went to our Church and Juanre sat the whole 1 1/2 hour still. We were amazed, now we are back home and she had a little seizure n Friday in her bed. Tomorrow the school starts for the new year.

2012 My wonderful husband and I have some our time...

Our time in Pictures. This was so much needed time.

Clifton Beach wow it is really beautiful there.

Kreefte Beach near Melkbosstrand

Clifton Beach Icy cold water

Steps at Clifton Beach.

Lourens at Scarborough. Thank you my love for the most wonderful 2 weeks.

. . . 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