The Lunatics Guide to Somewhat appearing to Have it Together

I will never claim to be wise, and don't think I am of the opinion anything I may have to comment about anything implies wisdom. All I have are my experiences and my perspective on them at the time, so PLEASE don't take what you may read here as TRUTH. There is nothing black or white or factual about it, and none of it can be proven. My aim is to vent and hope some of you can identify and gain perspective on your own experience. And perhaps, through that perspective, we may have compassion for ourselves and each other and form a sibling hood from our level of understanding.
That being said, I'm going to be all ignorant and judgmental for a moment. It cracks me up as I parooze the library, bookstores and Blog-o-sphere to find parents of five-year-olds writing authoritative information on parenting. People who have been married ten to fifteen minutes spewing marital advice. High profile wives whose husbands had an exposed affair and addiction giving an account how they've “delt with it” six months later. Arguably, someone must care, because, there they are, in Borders with their face on the back cover of “Busy Mom's guide to Successfully Having it All” by Bunny Lewis, age 26. I am in NO WAY trying to say that twenty-something mom's have nothing to contribute, but don't suggest you know how to raise healthy kids if you haven't, at least, sent any of yours to college. Now, if your title is “The Second Anniversary; A Young Couples Opinion of What We Think Might Be Working up to This Point”, well, to me, it seems a bit more honest.
Once Upon a time, there was a handsome prince who wore flannel shirts and drove a Honda. I was the lucky Cinderella who married that prince, and though the term “happily ever So Far” definitely applies, it is a general statement indeed. We continue to be madly in Love and “Happy” simply because we CHOOSE to be, and our experience is that will continue as long as we keep choosing.
Our Princess is a Perfect thirteen-year-old who is beautiful, brilliant, wise, creative, gifted and kind. If you ask me how anyone who has had to live their first 13 years of life in a house with me and is still all of the above, then my answer is simply Grace. I have NO CLUE. And I would whole heartedly still describe her as such even if I had just bailed her out of jail and staged an intervention to send her back to rehab for the third time (I may back off on “wise”, though) . Her choices in life would not change who she is, but simply expose her challenges working through the stuff of life to reach her God given potential.
The young Prince in our house is an eight year old like NO OTHER, and I say that with complete confidence. He is intelligent, loving, clever, self-assured, focused and funny. He has an autism diagnosis which makes each day a new adventure. He continues to work hard at dealing with people and navigating his way through a world full of relational inferences and gray area exceptions. And all I can do is bungle my way through equipping him to succeed the best I know how. But other than that, his progress is ultimately up to him ('cause God knows, you can't “Make Him” do it).
Both of our children seem to have a profound effect on people. They give people joy and inspire them. But, again, that all seems to be in spite of their circumstances of who their parents are and their current place in the world. The Bible tells us God won't give us anything we can't handle. Perhaps He knew I didn't have the coping skills to manage a husband or children who where any less than amazing.
So, this is my hypocritical contribution to a world already littered with Know-it-All's. The Secret of my Eventual Success:
Here's Hope- God Loves the Stupid and Blesses the Unworthy.