By four o'clock, my lips were stinging chapped and every time I put my teeth together, I crunched dirt. The water we got from the red pump in the back pasture was almost gone. It was warm. I was hot. And there was more work to do.

Having now experienced daily life on a Wyoming ranch leads me to suspect there is always more work to do.

Our son, Andrew, works as a cowboy at the Bartlett Ranch in southeastern Wyoming. The ranch breeds and sells quarter horses. Andrew "rides the rough ones and ropes the wild ones." I flew to Denver last night and drove up to the ranch to spend time with him for the holiday weekend. It has been a year and a half since I've seen Andrew. It is good to be with him.

I had planned my next blog post to be about our new homeschool year. Getting home from Cincinnati tumbled into a very busy week of adjustment to a new school routine, learning our way around some new curriculum, and merging the role of teacher with mom again.

To celebrate the completion of our first school week, we spent a beautiful Saturday morning playing and walking at the park. One of our new adventures this school year is to have a primary communication partner wear Nathaniel's talker so it is available to model his express language at all times. Rich continues to amaze me. He is fifty-five years old, raised seven kids, and could be spending his Saturday morning doing so many other things. But he was at a playground, learning a second language, and proving with his whole being how much he believes Nathaniel can live a normal life. In our adoption interview, Rich told everyone that he expects to someday do a backpack trip at Philmont High Adventure Ranch with Nathaniel. Many had expressions of doubt. What I don't think they realized was that Rich would help Nathaniel train for that outing from the beginning. Because you don't wake up fifteen years down the road and tell a kid his disabilities shouldn't stop him. You get on your hands and knees day after day and show him.

The outside door from the bedroom to a patio is open and I am watching fog roll off a pond just beyond the patio. Cool Ohio morning air is coming through the door requiring me to stay snuggled under the comforter. Our week at Cincinnati Children's Hospital for Nathaniel's evaluation by the Aerodigestive Clinic is over; we are spending the weekend at a friends' home before heading back to St. Louis. It was a good decision to come here and gradually re-enter real life. Generous hospitality and peaceful settings have a unique way of setting things back on course and calming chaos. I am thankful for this place to linger, to reflect, and to write this morning.

It was twenty-three years ago this month that Rich and I started watching the cattle report.

I was attending a weekly women's bible study that summer and had shared with the group in July about a mole on Rich's leg. I had nagged and nagged him to go to a doctor to have it removed and checked for cancer. I had made multiple appointments for him. For most of spring he had refused to take the time off work to go and had cancelled the appointments. The women agreed to pray with me that Rich would make an appointment and have the mole looked at. Within a few days of our prayers, Rich made an appointment and had the mole removed. That answer to prayer was a lesson for me on how God can work when I step out of the way.

I have been a bit lost about what to write this week. No. I have been a bit lost about what to feel this week. My head and heart are already in Cincinnati; it is hard to think and write about life here and now. Perhaps that is why I left a bag of groceries at the check out today. Sigh.

I have mentioned Nathaniel's airway difficulties in other blog posts.  With our upcoming trip to Cincinnati Children's Hospital Aerodigestive Center, I want to explain his conditions as we understand them today.

Our local medical team has diagnosed Nathaniel with congenital stage 3 subglottic stenosis with a laryngeal web. The subglottic area of the trachea is directly below the vocal cords. Stenosis means narrowing. Staging is rated 1-4; stage 4 is completely closed.

Augmented communication is hard. Nothing about it is easy or normal. 

Take last Saturday morning.

Rich, Joe and Nathaniel were outside working on Josiah's bike. When I walked into the situation, Nathaniel was upset and on the verge of a big melt down tantrum. Rich filled me in that it was regarding a tool that Nathaniel had confiscated as his own, but Josiah needed periodically. I asked where the talker was, hoping to offer everyone another tool to work through the situation. The talker was not outside.

We were chosen as Nathaniel's adoptive family on June 27, 2013. We spent the month of July learning about his care and preparing to transition him to our home. We teased that we had a one month pregnancy, but in reality it was even shorter because we took a previously scheduled vacation for a week mid July.

We needed EVERYTHING. I remember feeling very overwhelmed when Rich and I walked into Babies R Us early that July. Baby-hood had changed a great deal since we had prepared for our last child fourteen years earlier; even greater changes were noted since we had prepared for our first child twenty-three years earlier. When my other children were little, I had fallen in love with soft baby yellow. I searched for yellow sleepers and yellow receiving blankets. I learned quickly that 21st century baby world is genderized pink and blue.

Ben, Nathaniel and I went to Lowe's this week. Nathaniel had his talker in the cart and when the cashier started talking to him, I reached over and used the talker to say HI on his behalf. It is the easiest way to let someone know he is not going to respond verbally. Most often, hearing the talker catches people off guard and I can quickly sense the individual's familiarity and comfort with special needs children. The cashier came alive when she heard the device. She had questions. By the end of our transaction, she had shared that her own son has Down's Syndrome and was given a Speech Generating Device (SGD). He does not use it because he was teased and told it was for babies. She wanted more information. We wrote down the name of the app, name of my website, and the name of Nathaniel's new Facebook page.