I have a few really great loves in my life.

When our daughter Ellie was diagnosed with autism and multiple delays at the age of 2, we were willing to sacrifice to secure the help she needed, of course we were. Should we move to a larger city, with an autism program or a therapy clinic? Should we enroll her early in school — and where? After many late, dark nights researching options on the internet, we decided. I would quit my job and apply myself full-time to providing an in-home intensive Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) program, with the help of a kind behavior analyst willing to supervise, a devoted behavioral technician, and several amazing grad students and others we trained ourselves. We quickly added speech services and occupational therapy to Ellie’s weekly schedule, along with church activities, time at a pre-school and numerous kid camps. I will always be so grateful for the kindness and encouragement of these incredible people who led the way in hoping big for our daughter. Over these three years, Ellie was very busy, and we saw that she made progress related to skills. But it wasn’t the kind of change that we longed for.

When Ellie was 5 years old, I connected with Dr. Rachelle Sheely, co-founder of RDI®, through a family friend to whom I will forever be indebted. My subsequent study of the RDI® approach changed everything — for our daughter, our family, and our approach to her learning. This was what we had been longing for, the solid help we needed in learning to guide her, in teaching her to trust and seek us, in helping her to grow and to seek growth for herself. For more than 7 years now, RDI® Certified Consultant Katherine Lee has been our guide, mentor and friend on our journey of becoming more mindful parents to our daughter as well as our son Luke, Ellie’s twin brother. We continue on our own path of growth today with Kat’s continued support and guidance, and the encouragement of the RDI® community of parents and professionals.

I’m happy to tell you, there is no crawling through broken glass required in an RDI® program. But I do think the RDI® approach is deeply rooted in the belief that exactly that kind of go-to-the-ends-of-the-earth parental love is the stuff that makes us the very best and most competent guides for our children. No one wants more for them than we do, and most of us are so very, very willing.

Along my own path of learning, I earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from Abilene Christian University, and a Master of Arts degree in Professional Counseling from Texas Wesleyan University where I was deeply influenced by the work of Dr. Linda Metcalf in the Narrative and Solution Focused approaches to healing and change. Although I abandoned my path to licensure as a counselor when I began Ellie’s home-based ABA program, I carry with me so much of what I learned, including the significance of knowing where you want to go and the miracle of small changes over time.

Now it is my great privilege to work with parents and families as an RDI® Certified Consultant. I completed my RDI® consultant training under the excellent supervision of Dr. Rachelle Sheely, co-founder of RDI® and President of RDIconnect®. The first time I saw a video of her work with a young child, I cried. May every family with a diagnosis find such beautiful, thoughtful, compassionate and competent guidance.

Ryan, my husband of over 25 years, has also shaped the course of my life and learning. A full-time minister in the church for more than 17 years and a lifelong gardener, he has been teaching me about growth as a process, about planting seeds, and tending them, whether in the hearts of our children, or in the beautiful garden spaces he creates around our home, for over two and a half decades. I am thankful for all he has taught me as a partner, friend, husband, minister, gardener, and amazing father to our children. 

God has given me perhaps the greatest teachers of my life in the blessing of our two children. They are unique, creative, joyful, empathic creatures who each reflect the light and glory of their Creator, the One who continues to hold us all together and is always present with us on our path, when the night is dark and the walk is painful, as well as when the way is one of joy and easy rest. More than anything, His is the life and the love that I most want them to know and experience.

In his beautiful sermon, Meeting Christ in Our Tears, Trevor Hudson spoke these gentle words about God’s presence in our pain and I never grow tired of hearing it.

“...Christ is the Gardener. The one who brings new creation and who begins to plant little seeds in all our pain. Just little seeds of new beginning....”

My offering to families who choose to work with me is an offering of my heart, and all that God has placed there and tended for me. Thankfully, we have a God with a crawling-through-broken-glass kind of love Himself, and He is the expert and author of new beginnings. I’m thankful for the way God continues to form us through our relationships with Him and with others and grateful to trust in His process of growth, for myself, for the families I am privileged to know, and for our children.