New blog

This is a new blog for me! I have tried some others, but don't faithfully post except on caringbridge, and sometimes I fail to do that. http://www.caringbridge.org/sc/prestonwatson/

Anyhow, we are a 4 member family. I - Norma Gwen (Wood) Watson am from Canada, southern Ontario, went to Carolina Christian College in Thomasville, NC. Hubby (Howard P. Watson, Jr.) is from Virginia, and we met at Bible College. We married in 1980. We didn't have our first child until 1988; never did find out why it took us so long. Our first child was a son, Howard "Preston" Watson, III, and he was very ill from birth. That is another story in itself. If you care to read about it you can at the above link, caringbridge. At the time of his birth, we were pastoring in Miller's Creek, NC, a Bible Methodist church of TN. When Preston was 2, we resigned our pastorate and moved to the country in an Amish Community for a year. Then we moved to Easley, South Carolina, as my inlaws lived here. When Preston was 6, we had a baby girl, Melissa Gwen. When she was about 1 1/2 yrs. old, we took a pastorate in Savannah, TN for almost 5 years. The last year we were there, 1999, Preston completely crashed, mentally and phsyically. He had already had several surgeries and we knew he had mental illness, but he completely crashed when he was 10 in 1999. Come to find out he had strep, but none of the symptoms. He did not respond to antibiotics. Anyhow, after he had his tonsils removed, he has
been ok as far as strep. But mentally and emotionally he was getting worse. So we moved back to South Carolina, and have been here every since (Jan. 2000) I am a stay at home mom and homeschool Missie. Preston graduated from homeschooling last year when he turned 18. He never got past the 3rd Grade. He will be 19 in June. Missie as we call her (she was named after Missie in Janette Oke's Love Comes Softly series) will be 13 in May. She will be a teenager!!! Where has my baby gone? She is already acting in many ways like a teenager! This is a new experience for us; having a teenage girl! Guess what she wants for her 13th birthday? A cell phone and minutes on it!
Our lives are like an emotional roller coaster with all of Preston's problems. Some days are good, some are bad. His dr. that he had for years retired the end of 2006, and we had to find a new dr. We have found a wonderful dr. but have to pay out of pocket as he won't take medicaid, but we get a discount. He is working with Preston's meds. and overall Preston is doing much better. Stress is a big problem for him. Anticipation of anything is hard for him to handle. If we stay home most of the time, and have a routine, he does much better. Routine is a must for him. His diagnosis are: asperger syndrome (type of autism) which results in his rocking all of the time almost, major depression, anxiety, OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder), ODD (oppositional defiant disorder), moderate mental retardation with an IQ of 49. Missie in turn is very intelligent, and musically inclined. She has had a few music lessons, but is teaching herself to play the piano.
Hubby, who goes by Junior, works at Horizon CNC Products in Travelers' Rest, and is in charge of computer programming. If he gets caught up he will help in the shop area of the factory. He likes his job pretty good. He has depression, high blood pressure, severe sleep apnea, and has to sleep with a cpap every night. Due to his health, and Preston's health, we had to leave the ministry. Only the Lord knows if we will ever be able to return.
I love keeping a neat home, teaching my children in the ways of the Lord, making greeting cards, enjoy playing the piano, and lately I have been altering tins. I have sold 2 recipe tins, a mother's day tin with card in it, etc., so business is picking up for me. I also sell greeting cards. I sell some on ebay, but their fees are getting higher and higher.
We attend Easley Bible Methodist Church, and love our pastor and his wife, Rev. and Mrs. Terry Going. We don't socialize much because of Preston and his anxiety, so we mainly just be together as a family, except for Missie. She gets out with friends and goes to a co-op class for homeschoolers, etc., She has a dear friend in Six Mile that she spends the night with sometimes. We try to give her as much of a normal life as possible.

So this is my first loooong blog.

Norma