Family Dynamic

Both Amanda and I have recently started reading James Dobson's The Strong Willed Child.  I will give my thoughts on the book at a later date but I thought there was something interesting about the fact that we are just starting to read this now.  We have five children, ages: 8, 6, 3, 2 and 1.  However, there is an interesting dynamic because of Logan and Abby's autism.  Although we were very prepared for the baby years of Justus, Emma and Faith because of our previous experience, we now find ourselves in new territory.  Justus is our middle child but because of his typical development, we find ourselves facing issues that we have never had to deal with.  Discipline and reasoning with autistic children looks differently from that with typical children.  Justus is very much a strong willed child and so we are eager to learn how to deal with these issues.  Birth order does not mean so much in our family.  However, our goal for all five children is the same: to love and teach our children so that they can be the people that God has created them to be.  May God give us all the strength and wisdom for this noble task.