As I sit here writing this post, I can hear my man chuckling a bit to himself in the other room. And then my phone vibrates and I do a bit of chuckling myself. You all are hilarious. People have been texting us all night wanting insider info. This is what I posted on FB today:

I have a secret and I can’t wait to share it with you, friends…tomorrow. 🙂

You all jumped in with your guesses, but I think I stumped you.

Oh, how I wish I could tell you that it’s related to employment, but it’s not…yet. Some day I’ll get to write that post and it will be beautiful. And no, I’m not pregnant. My family is full.

What’s got me so giddy is the ways of the One who has our back. I feel like I have stepped back on to Little E’s Wild Ride. Remember those days as we watched as He wrote out her story as we brought her home? It was exhilarating. Not to say that the past 18 months haven’t been a wild ride, but some parts of the ride are hard and make you kind of sick to your stomach. Others parts are full of excitement and you can’t help but smile and giggle with glee.

A few weeks back, I got brutally honest with you and shared a part of our lives that I would rather hide. I wrote about one of the terrifying moments that we lost our daughter because she is an autistic wanderer. Ever since we discovered that facet of her, we have researched high and low for ways to keep track of her so that she is always safe, but also so that we can reduce our stress level a bit. Sadly, our culture is more prepared to track pets than they are humans (I know, I know. Don’t go all “mark of the beast” on me.). We have changed the security of our home and sought out numerous resources for how to help, but to no avail. Of course there was one idea that was on our list to pursue, but we didn’t know much about it and it seemed a long-shot so we kicked it to the bottom of all the ideas.

As God would have it, He roomed us last week right next to our answer. Not only did God have in mind for us to receive respite, but to find answers. You see, we had this vague idea about autism service dogs, but really didn’t know how it would apply to our Little E. How would a dog really help? We had a whole week to pepper the family next door with questions.

What we discovered is that an Autism Service Dog is the perfect solution for our little wanderer. Did you know that Autism Service Dogs can be trained to track the scent of our child if she does indeed wander away again, bark when she climbs trees or fences–“tattling” of sorts–and can be tethered to her in public situations like crowds? The poor family that we peppered, shared that having an Autism Service Dog reduced their stress level by 70%. We could use that in a big way. Can I get an “amen?!” There are other things that it can also help with in terms of her autistic characteristics, but they feel like icing on the cake compared to knowing that we have discovered the extra help that we need in keeping her safe.

Normal service dogs can have a 2-5 year wait because funding sources are slow for the agencies, but in our situation, we have the opportunity to step in the fundraising gap and expedite that time frame. We can literally shred it to pieces. The faster we fund raise, the faster we have a dog to keep our Little E safe.

For now, we have done a whole lot of research since we got home and have selected an agency. We are currently in the application process that can take 1-2 weeks. Once we are accepted, that is when it is go time.

Why do you care?

Because we need you. We need you to help write the next part of her story. When we get to the point of fundraising, it would be nice to have someone simply write one check and call it good, but my man and I both feel passionately that her story is so much more powerful when we all join hands together and play a part in the writing. We want you to learn about autism through her story and in-turn tell someone you know about autism. We worked together to bring Little E home, so we can work together to keep Little E safe, and we can work together to spread Autism Awareness.

As we wait, will you join us in prayer over this whole process? Will you join us in thinking of how you can creatively be a part of the fundraising? The goal is not large if we all give a little bit.

I am so giddy about having front-row seats to watch how He pens the next part of His story into her story. Will you join me? I’ve got some open seats.