Two Years

Two years. Wow. We've lived in this house for two years.

Okay, I know that for most people two years doesn't sound like very long at all. But this is us, we're talking about here. And this is the longest we've lived anywhere in almost nine years of marriage. What? Normal people don't move that often?

In celebration of actually staying put for two whole years, let's take a walk down memory lane and look at all of the places we've lived in the last nine years:

May 2006 - December 2006

One Bedroom Land in Murray, Kentucky

Our first apartment! (If you're familiar with Murray, you probably know of one-bedroom land: a little neighborhood of one-bedroom apartments.) The neighbors' cigarette smoke came through the walls into our closet and made all of our clothes stink, and the dining/office/living room was all one tiny space, but it was our first apartment! We got married, I finished my Bachelor's at Murray State, and then we moved to:

December 2006 - April 2007

Crescent Hill Neighborhood in Louisville, Kentucky

An old house that had been converted into four apartments, this one-bedroom was quirky and drafty and honest-to-goodness had one foot of counter space in the kitchen, but we loved it. Louisville felt so big and lonely, especially on Sundays, but we learned to cling to the Lord and to one another. I had a brief stint as a car salesman, and then Josh was called as pastor of Elk Lick Baptist Church in Owenton, so we moved to:

April 2007 - October 2007

Owenton, Kentucky

We'd planned on buying a house here and putting down roots, but when that fell through, we landed in a steal of a two-bedroom duplex (the apartments were on the second floor), with a wonderful old couple as our neighbors and landlords. Then out of nowhere I was asked to apply for a position at Crossings Ministries in Louisville, which was not only my dream place to work but would also pay a lot more than I was currently making, so I did and we wound up moving back to:

October 2007 - May 2009

Clifton Heights Neighborhood in Louisville, Kentucky

We had the sweetest two-bedroom apartment here, and we loved it so, so very much. This is the apartment where we lived when Jude was born. We drove out to Owenton every Sunday until Josh graduated from Boyce and God called us to move to Moldova for two years as missionaries, so we packed up and moved to:

May 2009 - September 2009

Our Parents' Houses in western Kentucky

(I don't have pictures of our parent's houses, so here's Jude snoozing on my parents' front porch.) We moved back and forth between our parents' houses roughly every two weeks, soaking up as much quality time with our loved ones as possible until the day finally came that we left for:

September 2009 - December 2009

Camp Apartment in Vatici, Moldova

Tucked into the back of the second floor of this building that housed all of the students, it was a welcome and delightful 220 square feet of privacy and autonomy after living out of childhood bedrooms for the last 3 months. There were so many little annoyances about living there (the boys outside our door would wake up Jude during his nap, we rarely had hot water, and the winter brought a constant battle with mold, for starters), but in spite of them all, my heart only wells up with fondness and happy memories when I remember that tiny place. But we didn't get green cards at first, which meant that after 3 months we had to leave the country for 3 months, so off we went back to:

December 2009 - March 2010

Our Parents' Houses in western Kentucky

(Again, no pictures of the outside, so here's Jude and Crider with a baby goat that Mammie brought in the house.) Same as above. These seasons of living with our parents were so hard for me, but it was great to get to spend Jude's first Christmas and birthday with everyone. Finally it was time to move back to:

March 2010 - May 2010

Camp Apartment in Vatici, Moldova

(In the kitchen of the apartment. There's Jude's dresser in the hall.) Same as above. Spring at camp was glorious, and then a family we worked with asked us if we would house and dog sit for them for 8 months while they were in America, so we packed up and moved to:

May 2010 - February 2011

Herndons' House in Orhei, Moldova

Talk about stretching our legs! This was a huge, two-story, six-bedroom house with a walled-in yard. It was wonderful, especially in the winter! A huge kitchen! Fast internet! We loved it. We had a love-hate relationship with their dogs, Peanut and Heidy, but it was slightly more love than hate. But alas, they finally came back and we had to move back to:

February 2011 - June 2011

Camp Apartment In Vatici, Moldova

(Our bedroom could barely fit a full-sized bed, a twin mattress in the floor, and a dresser. The foot of the bed actually stuck out into the doorway a little.) I still only have heart eyes for this little apartment, but after being used to the Herndons' house, moving back here felt more cramped than cozy, especially with Jude getting so much bigger and more active. It was indescribably bittersweet to then move back to America to:

June 2011 - July 2011

Our Parents' Houses in western Kentucky
Good and crazy time catching up, reacclimating, and apartment hunting. We finally found a great place in:

July 2011 - March 2013

Village Manor in Louisville, Kentucky
We settled into a two-bedroom unit in a huge apartment complex near the seminary. We had so many friends there, lots of grassy space for Jude to play, and a large fenced-in playground. By God's mercy, we had a downstairs apartment without anyone living above us for almost the whole time we lived there. The last few months with night-owl, party-animal upstairs neighbors were pretty awful, though. This was such a sweet and hard time for us. After 18 months there, God called Josh to Mt. Tabor Baptist Church, and we moved to:

March 2013 - Present

The Parsonage in Buffalo, Kentucky

Three bedrooms, 1.5 baths, a huge dining room that used to be a car port, and a two-car attached garage. It's practically a castle compared to most of the places we've lived. We could not be more thankful to God for bringing us to this church and this home! This is what it looked like when we moved in. It looks so different now! I wanted to get a "now" picture, but that will have to wait because I'm down with the flu right now.

Our Experience with HBOT & Autism

I know that there are many friends and family members who are eager to hear about our experience with our 30-day hyperbaric chamber rental. Let me start by saying that we are very, very thankful for the opportunity to rent the hyperbaric chamber (hereafter shortened to HBOT, for HyperBaric Oxygen Therapy), and for our generous families for making that possible.

When you start a new intervention that's supposed to help autism, everybody recommends that you only try one thing at a time, so you'll know if it works. While that does make sense, I also feel a sense of urgency to do whatever I can for Jude as soon as I can. So, I'm going to talk a little about all of the things we've been doing lately.

You have to wear an oxygen mask in there to get the benefits from it, which surprised us when it was delivered and set up. Jude hated the mask, so we did all of his sessions at nap and bedtime so I could slip it on once he was asleep.

About the same time we started HBOT, I also started him back on liquid Super Nu Thera. SNT is a multivitamin that has extremely high doses of B-vitamins. Jude takes the one that has the added P-5-P and doesn't have any A or D vitamins in it, since he gets those in his cod liver oil. We saw positive changes in Jude when we tried SNT over the winter, but honestly, it's really gross tasting, he hates it, and I got weary of the daily battle, so I stopped it. After having him back on it for a few weeks, and missing a couple of days here and there for various reasons, I can definitively say that SNT makes the most notable difference in him. Days when he doesn't get it (and especially the second day), he is so much less aware of what's going on around him. Sometimes I give him an extra half-dose in the afternoons and the next day his cognition is even better.

He also started taking a Carlson Cod Liver Oil every day. This was a total accident. He has some kids' fish oil pill that he loves because they are strawberry flavored, and the CLO pills are for me. One day he grabbed one of my CLO pills and gobbled it right up. Since these have more good stuff in them than what he was taking, I happily let him keep taking one every day. We don't see a change in him with CLO, but it is good for everyone to take, so he would be getting it regardless.

About halfway through our HBOT time, we also started him on Fivelac, a second probiotic, as a one-two punch to the yeast overgrowth in his gut. We saw a very mild die-off reaction from the Fivelac (mostly in his diaper), and then some small improvements in his sociability, but it's hard to say which intervention really caused the improvements.

He takes a chewable CoQ10 every morning, and we've also seen a decline in his cognition when he doesn't take it. Not as dramatic as the SNT, but still noticeable. He's been taking CoQ10 for several months, long before we started the HBOT.

Before bed, he takes melatonin to help him get sleepy, two BioKult probiotics opened and mixed into a spoonful of honey, and some liquid Calcium & Magnesium. I take this Cal/Mag, too, since we're both dairy-free, and it's my favorite kind I've found. It tastes good and also includes some Vitamin D and green foods. Taking Cal/Mag before bed also helps you sleep better. That said, I notice that it helps me sleep, but not him.

It's fairly dimly lit in there, but not as dark as this phone pic makes it seem. Also, he isn't wearing the oxygen mask in this pic, which I can tell because he is awake.

Okay. Now that I've gone through everything else he's taking, it's time to discuss the HBOT. Word on the street (okay, the internet) is that most people see improvements around the 20th dive, and another bump in progress around the 30th dive. We didn't notice any differences around these milestones. What we did see were very small, gradual improvements in both his cognition and sociability over the course of the month.

Jude has liked to sing for a long time. He usually has one song in his head that he'll sing for a while (mostly in gibberish, but the tune is clear), and then move on to a different one. In the last couple of weeks, though, he has been pulling up lots of old songs and he's like a little radio station switching between songs! He sings:
This is the Day
School House Polka
I'll Fly Away
Barbara Manatee
and the VeggieTales Theme Song

The most exciting thing for me this month has been that he's started saying, "Mama!" He doesn't use it much, and sometimes he doesn't use it quite right, but he is saying it, and most of the time he does use it right! For probably 2 years now, I've been playing a game with him where I get right in his face (usually when we've been wrestling) and put his hands on his cheeks and say, "Jude," and then move them to my cheeks and say, "Mama." Then, we recently downloaded the free Knock Knock Family app, and customized it with some of our own pictures (my only gripe is that it comes with a dozen or so cartoon people, but you can only add 5 of your own). He loves it and one day he saw my picture and said, "Mama!" Granted, he also said it when he saw Daddy and Tio's pictures, but I'll take it. He's said it several more times, mostly just at my picture, and once even said, "Jude...Mama," while playing the hands-on-cheeks game (though not at the same time as doing the hands).

One improvement that is hard to really quantify is that he just seems more aware and like he understands us better. Sometimes he'll obey things we say that we didn't expect him to understand, or go to something we mention, or respond correctly (by his actions) to what we say. Granted, that is only sometimes. A lot of the time he's still screaming and pulling on us and not understanding the very loving things we are trying to do for him, but sometimes understanding is better than never, so we are encouraged.