Why Blog about it?

I enjoy journaling. It is very therapeutic to write down my thoughts and stresses. It is as if putting them down on paper releases them from me. All through highschool and even into adulthood, i've kept personal journals (on paper). Since having kids, sleep has taken over priority of journaling many nights, and i find that i miss 'getting it out'... venting.

I also do not have a good memory. My brain is very selective in what it chooses to retain. I have loved that i can sit down with my old journals and read through them and just remember. Be brought back to that place in time, to where my heart was and then to skip forward and to see where i ended up, how God got me through it, to see how it shaped me and moulded me to be the person i am today. I have been keeping a private family blog since 2008 and have really loved keeping it up to date with pictures and allowing others to follow us in our journey. I would love to scrapbook, but the time and space is just not available anymore. Three kids, a husband, and a home is a LOT of work to maintain! My blog is my scrapbook... and i review it from time to time and find joy in that.

One great thing that i have loved about the fact that i've blogged (journalled), is that i have been able to read over the past year and a half to see the progress, in more detail than i can recall by memory, of our son Marshall. I love looking back now and really seeing how far he has come! I have thought often that i should be writing down all of the little things, both good and bad, that happen in each day.. more so for myself than anything. So now that Marshall is diagnosed, i have felt like it is important that i really start recording (daily if i can) the challenges, the struggles, the progress, and the accomplishments.... ALL of it.

I want to do this for my own record. But then i thought, maybe Marshall's story and my journey with him can help someone else? I know that my sister has stated that she is often approached by people (mostly from our church) that ask, "How's Marshall doing? How's Sonja doing?" My sis has stated that others have shared that they don't want to upset me or say the wrong thing. Well, i'm an open book... especially on paper ;) I am not a perfect parent... not even close! But i love my kids with the love that the Lord God has shown to me... unconditional. It is going to be a journey with ups and downs, it already has been. So i figure, why not put myself out there? Be vulnerable sometimes? Allow people to follow on this adventure that God has decided I am strong enough to handle.... and i feel that this is part of His plan, to start this blog, this blog about Faith, Hope, Love and Autism.

Jeremiah 29:11-13 "For I know the plans i have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."