Our Neurodiverse Journey

You all know that we love to have fun over here. Life is full of antics, adventures, and a whole lot of excitement. Since the beginning of this blog, you’ve watched us travel, explore, homeschool, work, play and drink a lot of coffee. You found resources, tips, lists and how-to’s.

You’ve read about our lives #behindtheprayercard as we’ve attempted to connect you to missions overseas in a brand, new way.

As I type, I’m trying to figure out how to write this next part of our journey. We’re all still here doing the same things you’ve always seen, yet with an undercurrent of new vocabulary, understanding, health, and growth. We’re on furlough. Jeremy is getting closer to finishing his masters in ministerial leadership. Our girls are successfully entering adulthood after spending 10 years overseas. Same things, same people, new twist.

The struggle, for me, is to write our neurodiverse journey into this space with vulnerability, humility, grace and my full attention. I don’t want to say more than I should in stories that aren’t mine to tell. Yet, sharing here is what I do. My heart processes it all by writing down this journey, detailing the very real challenges of life in ways that keep us all walking the journey together.

Through a few counselors’ words, a ton of reading, podcasts like Neurodiverse Christian Couples, thought, prayer, conversations, evaluations, therapy… ALL THE THINGS, as I like to say, we’ve come to a new understanding of what makes up Our Goodwin Journey.

Again, as I type, I’m guessing you’re like, “What? What does that even mean?”

In response, I would say, “We’re still learning that.”

According to the Cleveland Clinic, “Being neurodivergent means having a brain that works differently from the average or “neurotypical” person.”

It’s not a disorder or medical problem. It’s just different from me, the neurotypical in our family. The people I love are on the neurodiverse spectrum {ASD+ADHD}.

I’ve witnessed the undercurrents of it in our 22 year marriage… I just didn’t know what it was over the years. All the fun, all the hobbies, all the interests, all the things we love about Jeremy mixed in with the stress, crazy, and challenges of what we do, brought the undercurrent up to a wave that was impossible to miss.

Also, homeschooling gave me a unique opportunity to make school exactly what each of our girls needed at the time they needed it. I knew they needed something different so I dug in, researched and figured out what that thing was. I just didn’t fully understand why. I wondered, asked doctors, talked to specialists, but no one really heard me until we found an incredible team who worked with the girls, listened to our story and jumped in to resource us in South Africa. I’ll love them forever.

It was during that process for the girls that light bulbs went off for me about Jeremy, about our marriage, about our specific challenges and struggles. Then, through a sweet miracle of grace, my counselor had one conversation with another counselor that made her think of us. It was a conversation that put me straight on this path of discovering neurodiversity. It wasn’t long before books and podcasts and blog posts and specialists gave us the tools we needed to move forward on this new path.

Again, you might be wondering, “Why is she sharing all of this with the world?”

I sit here wondering, too. Is sharing the right thing? Is it weird to add yet another layer to the blog? Is this information going to be helpful or resourceful to someone?

We hope so. We’re praying that God uses this part of the story. There might be people who are going through something challenging and our story could encourage them to speak, share, get help and gain new understanding.

Through conversations with the girls and with Jeremy, we all see how this naturally fits into the story of who we are and what we do. There is so much humor in our days, so many stories, and so many complications. So much life. And, so few resources for families like ours.

As we engage with you all, we want to use our new vocabulary to share stories with vulnerability and engage as we walk this out. That means we don’t mind sharing the journey, the behind the prayer card things. Which puts us back where we always are… sharing here with you.

We’ve kept all of this in a tight circle as we processed for ourselves. I’ve been on a blog hiatus for a season of truly just waiting, praying, reading, grieving, laughing, crying, processing and letting God do some very deep work in me. But I’m feeling this sense to write, to begin here, to share here, to pour out a little more of this journey with all of you.

I’m still sorting old content, dusting off the blog and making it ready to read. There are links that need fixed, redirects that need attention, and who knows what else that needs a little upkeep. But for now, I’ll just keep writing the story.

Our newly known, newly processed, still growing neurodiverse journey.