What a whirlwind week it has been and it's not even over yet!

People have come, quite literally, out of the woodwork since my baptism -- telling me they have been praying for me all along.  People I barely know.  People I DON'T know!

Humbled.

 People have been messaging me on facebook, sharing my blog, telling my story.  They have told me that my words inspire them.  That my story has touched them.  I've received emails from people I haven't heard from in years.  They are thanking me for sharing my story.

Blessed.

 My wonderful friend Andy Rampulla, who happens to be Pastor Mark's dad, (and therefore, Marlee's grandfather) sent me all of the photos he took on Sunday.  I wanted to share this one since it was so critical to my story.

Remember I said that Marlee was watching?  That Marlee brought me to this place of salvation and she was right there beside me, cheering me on?


Nevermind my Alice Cooper makeup.
I love the way Mark is looking at his daughter.
I love the way *I* am looking at his daughter.
Full of gratitude.
I wonder if this child will ever fully know and understand the impact she had on her teacher.
I wonder if she will ever realize that it was she who taught me?

Grateful.




Blessed.
Humbled.
Grateful.

I'm going to start blogging more.  Yeah, yeah, I know.  I've said it before.  But I think I look at blogging as this profound PROCESS and it doesn't have to be.  Sometimes it will be  short quick blurb like it was today.  Long or short, profound or not,  I hope it makes you smile.  

I have a simple goal in life.  To make one person laugh each day.  Even in my work I have done with autism my goal has always been to just help ONE family.  To just touch ONE life.  If I've done that, I have succeeded.  I will treat my blog the same way.  If I reach ONE person... I will have succeeded.  Maybe I will make you think, maybe I will make you smile, maybe I will make you laugh if I'm lucky.

Let's find out shall we?  Follow me and let's go on this journey together. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Shameless self promotion

Image
Well, in case you haven't figured it out, I do a lot of work with Autism Speaks and the TN Walk Now for Autism . I've mentioned before why I feel it's so important to raise awareness but... I'm going to say it again. This week a group of high school kids asked Autism Speaks to send someone out to talk to them about autism. How cool, right? They wanted to learn more! And my "more," I mean, "at all." Of the 42 kids in that room with me, ONE of them even knew what autism was. Newsflash: 1 in 150 kids are being diagnosed with autism in the United States. In the UK it's estimated that the numbers are more like 1 in 67. We need, *NEED* to educate the masses. So I was thrilled to have the opportunity to teach these kids about autism and what it looks like and I encouraged them to go tell 10 people about what we talked about and make the information viral. I mean, Comic-Con and Twilight are trending topics on Twitter and yet autism is not? Really? The ...
Read more

"This book"

Image
I know, I know, I know. The topic this month is, "believe." I get it. I've been talking about "believing in yourself," but yanno what? Sometimes it's kinda hard. I get that. On a night like tonight, I get that more than anyone. Here's the thing. It's sort of a dirty little secret. But I'm about to let the cat out of the bag. A year ago, I wrote a book. Yep, I, me, April Schmidt wrote a book. Guess what it's about? Come on, guess........ it's going to be shocking. A little boy with autism. It's a children's book. A picture book, in fact. And here's the story of how it came to be. About a year ago, Luke and I were having a really bad day. Sometimes we have those. Luke is REALLY into books and as we were laying in bed trying to wind down this bad day and put it behind us, I was really wishing I had a book. This book. A book that he could "read" and relate to. A book that he could look at the pictures and say, "Hey...
Read more

Opening, closing, swinging.......

I can't believe it. I moved my blog. I mean... who DOES that? I guess me. And here's why. I was discussing in my last post that sometimes it's hard for me to write. And I realized after much thought (really this has been swirling around in my brain for months) that while I have A LOT to say about autism... it's not ALL I have to say. And yet I find that when the title of my blog is, "April walks with autism," well then by golly, I better be talking about autism. And make NO MISTAKE. I will never, EVER stop talking about autism. But for those of you who have met me... you know I have so much more to say. So here starts a new relationship with my blog. One in which I will.... open some new doors. It was easy for me to figure out the new name of my blog. Let me give you a tiny bit of background. Earlier this year, I reluctantly joined the Eat, Pray, Love craze. I say reluctantly because I picked up the book several times throughout the course of a y...
Read more