It’s not – it is Rebecca Leola (though since college I have gone by “Becca,” much to my mother’s distaste). I’m named after my mom’s favorite grandmother, my great-grandmother, Leola Maxine. My Grandma Maxine was a beauty queen – seriously! Pretty awesome.

Something about me? Well, I am quite possibly dyslexic (seriously!) and maybe slightly…okay, a lot…OCD. I love anything crafty. I love to scrapbook and crochet. I have become a not-so-closet-anymore computer geek. Someday, I will write an amazing book. I teach High School English (the job I’d be doing in parallel universe, the one in which I don’t homeschool and am actually able to pay off all those college loans) at our homeschool co-op.

One more nugget of awesomeness – I strongly dislike cooking. I bet you thought “oh she homeschools she must be such a happy homemaker” – NOT! The ironic thing is that I can cook – quite well, actually. But I’d rather clean a bathroom…used by little boys…who “miss” constantly. Yeah. No real love for the kitchen here. It is something I have vowed to work on: learning to have a more pleasant relationship with meal making and planning.

Ah, my Geek. A most amazing husband and father! When he’s not working at his “real” job, he’s doing what he loves: programing and web designing. And now, he’s doing it with a real money-making purpose: The Geek and Me. Hopefully this little venture takes off. What a blessing it would be! When The Geek is not being a Geek (haha) he’s rough housing with the Things, humoring my need to rearrange the furniture every few months, or beating me badly at rummy.

There is so much I could tell you about Micah! He loves math and learning how things work. He loves to build things and take them apart. He is obsessed with time and schedules.

He’s my little fighter on so many fronts. He was born with a bilateral cleft lip and palette. By age three we realized he was also cross eyed – or went cross eyed, he was not born that way! And now, at age 5, we’ve discovered he has Aspergers aka High Functioning Autism. I think developed autism is more like it – like since around the age of 4. Vaccines? Maybe. All the narcotics and other meds to go along with 7 surgeries since the age of 2 months? Maybe.

Okay, I sound bitter and whiny. I know. I am, unashamedly. It sucks. All of it. It is not the life I dreamed for my baby, or for myself as his mother.

But God is good. We are surrounded by friends who support us and pray for us. Somehow we happen to live in a place where there also lives one of the top plastic surgeons in the country – who just happens to be a cleft lip and palette specialist. God is awesome. And while we don’t live in the best place for an Autism specialist, I feel that every day God is introducing me to yet another family who has been touched by the Spectrum. God has a plan.

And so, I try to wake up hoping that plan will be revealed today. I pray I will be able to offer help and hope to another mom who has been devastated by similar struggle. Because I know God has a reason for putting these challenges in my family’s life. He will use us to His glory and purpose – even if I can’t see it right now.

My adventure-seeking, Thomas (the train) loving, dino-expert-in-training little man! All boy. He loves his Big Brother and (many times to my frustration) copies his every word and move. And he always has a great big hug and kiss for his Mama.