I Would Have Said Yes
A Family's Journey with Autism
by
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CHAPTER 1
WHAT IF GOD ASKED?
“I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you spiritual wisdom and revelation in your growing knowledge of him, since the eyes of your heart have been enlightened so that you may know what is the hope of his calling…” Ephesians 1:17
I guess I was like most girls. I dreamed of growing up, going to college, becoming a teacher, getting married, having children…”TA DA! I’M DONE!” That was the life I envisioned. It pretty much happened that way, although the order got a little scrambled. I did grow up. I did go to college, but I married Ron Simmons while I was in college and had my first baby, Justin, just before starting my student teaching. Whew! Quite a whirlwind of activity for a 3 ½ year period, but I did it. I graduated and became a teacher; what I’d always wanted to be.
Ron continued working full-time while going to school part-time. Because of his part-time status as a student, it took him 10 years to complete his undergraduate degree. He likes to joke that he crammed 4 years into 10. Obviously, he crammed a lot more in those 10 years than just a college education. I remember one of the professors at Southern Arkansas University where we both attended before we married, suggested that I should quit school or at least work and go to school part-time while Ron finished his degree first. I understand why that seemed logical to her. She obviously saw that Ron was incredibly gifted and could make great strides in the business world. However, she didn’t factor in my determination to get a degree. No one in my family had ever been to college. Most of them barely graduated high school. So I felt I had to finish. I would later use that same determination for something much greater than a degree. I think our children were blessed with a double dose of the determination gene.
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About the Book
If God asked your permission before a blessing or hardship, how would you answer? Most would say “yes” to the blessing and “no” to the hardship, especially if it involved our children. Thankfully, God does not ask; rather, he gives us the gift of hindsight—to look back and say yes to the hardship that made us who we are.
Struggle produces more strengths than weaknesses, more courage than fear, and more resolve than complacency.
Bookstores are filled with incredible stories of courage and overcoming insurmountable odds. No one wants to read about a person who was born, went to school, made average grades, got an average job, had an average family and died an average death concluding with an average funeral. We probably know lots of people like that, but there are no books about them. No, we want the stories of the “average” overcomers. We want to hear about the men, women, and families, just like ours, who have faced their own Goliath and won, because we want to believe, we too can muster the “umph” to make it through our own difficulties.
I Would Have Said “Yes” chronicles an average family with above average determination, who are blessed by an incomprehensible and awesome God to see extraordinary miracles—one day at a time.
About the Author
With a degree in elementary education, Lisa Simmons taught in public and private schools as well as home school. She also worked with teenagers with learning disabilities in the Dallas area.
Married since 1980 to her husband, Ron, she is a mother of three and grandmother of two. Raising a son with autism gives Lisa a passion for helping other families with special needs.
A board member of St. Timothy Christian Academy and advisory council of Lifesavers Foundation, Lisa also assists and supports her husband in his role on the National Board of Directors of the Autism Society of America and State Representative in the Texas House of Representatives.
As a hobby, Lisa enjoys writing poems and songs particularly relating to moms. To hear some of her songs, click on the link "Greasing the Skids"