Easter Parade Rage

Okay, it's not like the church we go to has much of an Easter Parade thing, but still. I wasn't going to go for anything formal, but I wanted the kiddos to go in new clothes this morning.

Nothing they wouldn't wear ever again, the idea was to get them clothes that will also be school clothes.

Mo was up and singing at 6:30, and church wasn't until 11:00, so I let her hang out and paint in her night clothes, then had her shower later. The idea was to get her to church presentable.

She usual showers at night, but then she burrows her wet head into the covers and guys on her bed, and wakes up with Andy Warhol hair. So the morning shower was also part of feigning respectability.



Then her hair was just as unruly without pillows as it ever is with an excuse. And then, right after this picture was taken, she found a blue marker that wasn't even supposed to be available, and put a stripe into one of the legs of the brand new white pants.

I melted down for a minute. For crying out loud, if I spend $11 on a pair of pants, is it too much to ask that they stay presentable for twenty minutes.

Then I apologized to my kids for slamming things, traded Mo for some pants that didn't have marker on them and got back to being late for church.

At church, I met a family with an autistic son, the mother of which was helping in the kiddo church section.

It's so nice to meet people who understand what you're dealing with.

We got to talking about what needed to happen for a Special Needs Ministry. This is something my ex's church tried a few years back, to little effect. But there is definitely a need.

Here's the deal: whether it's vaccination side effects or intestinal yeast or what, Autism is not only common, it's increasingly common. The numbers went from one in 166 kids to one in 150 lately. This is a church that packs in people. A church shopping for bigger real estate to house itself even while it 'seeds' churches into outlying areas. Seven hundred (I'm guessing) people per service, minimum, for two services. Probably 2,000 people who call this their church home.

And how many autistic kids? Three that we know of, including Mo.

Where are all the autistic kids? I'll tell you where they aren't: they aren't at church.

The church that builds it will see them come. I mean a place where the parent of a kid who normally cannot be left with anyone but a parent or a small portion of highly trained school staff, a kid who maybe makes a bus driver quit from time to time, can comfortably go sit in a real church sanctuary and listen to a sermon.

Oprah recently did her first ever Autism show (though I'm pretty sure she's done a show on a dozen far less common and less debilitating disorders), and she illustrates America's cluelessness. People who haven’t' dealt with this shit firsthand just don't have the foggiest notion. Difficult children are, somehow the product of terrible parenting, and there is no quarter in places like church for these difficult kids and their terrible parents.

The first church that actually makes sure they are a place where parents of kids who can't be taken anywhere are welcome, for real, is going to get a steady flow of new members. Doctrine and denomination will not even matter to a lot of these parents, if it's really church and they really don't have to hide their offspring, they'll be there.