But the Lord directs our steps

I think Proverbs 16:9 is my life verse.

  The human mind plans the way, but The Lord directs the steps.

I have often felt like I have stumbled upon things that have worked well for our family in various ways. I know that God has brought about the therapies, schools and interventions that David has needed among other things. When deciding these paths, I have learned to pay attention to where I am feeling peace and where there is a distinctive lack of peace.

Saturday was a day that seemed completely supernaturally orchestrated. I woke up and put on an autism awareness t-shirt. I didn't have any major plans for the day except for taekwondo and kids club at Michael's. I checked Facebook and noticed the information for the autism parent support meeting and respite care for children and siblings. I RSVPed and called my husband at work to ask if he would like to go on a date with me tonight. We were both looking forward to it. Autism support meetings are enjoyable but we were primarily looking forward to some time to ourselves.

I prepared the children by asking if they wanted to go to a pizza party. They were excited. I was worried about the two little boys since they are momma's boys and will rarely stay in the nursery at church. But I figured the child care providers had dealt with difficult cases. Two workers helped the children get right to playing and there were zero tears. Truly thrilling! When we picked them up, the baby had fallen asleep and they said that he was a complete joy. They bragged over how helpful the older boys were. They had done art projects and the children were all smiles and exclaiming about what a good time they had.

During the autism support meeting, I was expecting a typical everyone-share-their-story deal. Instead they had an autism mom speak about nutrition. Her son had been diagnosed about the same time as our son. She and her husband were both in the medical profession and yet they missed the first signs just as probably most first time parents do. They spoke of freaking out, blaming themselves and realizing significant things in hindsight. God bless people who can be real and encourage others who have been through the same events and emotions.

She began the nutrition discussion with the gut. I looked at my husband. Could this discussion be any more pertinent with discussing GAPS diet? She explained about how the gut was having trouble getting what we need from our food and some of the common supplementation like magnesium, zinc and fatty acids. I learned that excessive earwax is a sign of nutritional deficiency. Makes me wonder why all the doctors who have cleaned out my son's ears never thought to mention that. We have done zinc supplementation when that test came back low and we have given vitamins regularly and various other supplements as we could so the children aren't having the kind of deficiencies that affect their hair texture and such.

When it was opened to questions, I asked her opinion on the GAPS diet. She explained how hard the diet was and how it required everything to be prepared at home. As I have felt, she never felt up to the challenge. But she said that if you could follow it, it was one of the best and most effective diets especially if you have chronic intestinal issues or yeast. We are the product of four generations of intestinal issues. I said that I was thinking of waiting til after the holidays to start and she said it would be a great New Year's resolution. She also gave me some resources including another support group that could help us with the particulars of implementing the diet

I couldn't have planned this. I had no idea what the topic of discussion would be. I couldn't have predicted that not only an experienced autism mom but a doctor would confirm we are on the right track. We went out for coffee and dessert afterwards. My husband told me that it was one of the things he loved about me that I could find information and learn about the things we faced. We had just listened to a mom with more education and access to healthcare information who had tried many things exactly as I had with the gluten-free diet, enzymes when we couldn't be perfect and supplementation. Our path isn't so far-fetched after all!

Thank you Lord!