Precerpt from Raising God's Rainbow Makers: Precocity and Disconcert
Their children's precocity can often disconcert parents. These children not only do unpredictable things, but the things they do are also often unimaginable to their parents--and how to deal with them perplexing. After all, when do you reward creativity and when do you punish it? Shane setting the house on fire with a science experiment clearly belonged in the latter category though one still wants to laud the creativity and scientific depth behind it. But what about when those unpredictable things go beyond the home?
When Shane was 12, I picked up the phone--landlines back then and anyone could answer. The voice at the other end sounded like a man in his 30s, and it turned out in reality to be a man in his 30s.
"May I speak to Shane?" asked the voice.
"Well, I don't know," I responded. "Shane is a 12-year-old boy."
The voice hesitated, then said, "Ok, but I think I still need to talk to him."
I put Shane on the line, and he immediately went into his dad Donny's office, picked up the extension there, and turned on the computer.
What the heck, I thought? This is strange. Another of Shane's unpredictable things.
Shane worked on the computer, talking to the voice, for maybe 20 minutes. It looked like some kind of problem solving going on, and I gave him some privacy.
After a bit. when he came upstairs, I asked him. "What was that all about?"
"Oh," he replied, "That was Karl, the administrator of Nite Log, a bulletin board." These were the days before the Internet, and while I knew what a bulletin board was, I definitely was not adept at using them. Shane was. Indeed, as became immediately clear, he was very adept.
"Well, what did this Karl want?" I asked. "Why did he call you?"
"Because I left him a message to call. I found a document that had a virus in it on the bulletin board and took it down. I left him a message to call because I should not have been able to take it down. Only the administrator should be able to take it down, but he had left his back door [apparently, a way in that circumvented security controls] open. He wanted to know how I had found it, so I was walking him through the process on the phone. He was happy that I removed the virused document, but he was not happy that the back door was open. I knew he would want to close that back door, which is why I left him the message."
Uh, okay. Whatever you said...
Karl went on to found Redshift IPO when the Internet reached out to the whole world and stayed with that until a couple of years ago when he retired. Several companies I worked with, including my current company, used Redshift services.
Shane went on to grow up. Throughout his life, computers have been for him the same king of a tool that a phone or mixing bowls have been for me.
Shane came by his propensity for disconcerting his parents naturally. Though he died when I was 22, more than half a century ago, my dad had the same kind of curiosity and innate tech skills that Shane has. When he was 12, too, he reached out beyond his own house technologically. In his time, it was a radio thing. Already at that age, he was building radios and operating a ham radio. When he got a bit older, he got his ham radio operator's license. While waiting to get old enough for that, though, he reached out wherever he could. One of the frequencies, supposedly an inaccessible one, belonged to the FBI. Imagine my grandmother's surprise when the FBI knocked on my grandmother's door and confiscated my dad's homebuilt radio! They, too, wanted to know how he had been able to intercept them.
Like grandfather, like grandson! (Maybe I should have spent more time talking to my father about the things that got him into trouble as a child. I might have been better prepared for what lay ahead with Shane.)
Book Description:
Raising God's Rainbow Makers
A Family Memoir of Grace, Grit, and Growing Up Different
What happens when a military family welcomes four children—each with wildly different needs—into a world not always built to support them?
In Raising God’s Rainbow Makers, one mother shares the remarkable journey of raising two children with complex disabilities—one with spina bifida, one with CHARGE Syndrome—and two intellectually gifted children, all born in different states during years of military life. Through medical crises, educational challenges, and societal roadblocks (both intentional and unintentional), this honest and inspiring memoir tells the story of how one family built a life of strength, compassion, and resilience.
With warmth and unflinching honesty, the author reflects on emergency surgeries, IEP battles, unexpected victories, and the fierce sibling bonds that formed in the face of it all. The children—now grown—bear witness to the power of support, faith, and never giving up.
This is not just a story of survival. It is a celebration of difference, a chronicle of hope, and a powerful testament to what love and determination can build when the world says "impossible."
Keywords:
Parenting memoir; Special needs parenting; Raising children with disabilities; Military family life; Family resilience; Inspirational family story; Faith-based memoir; Coping with medical challenges; Sibling support stories; Gifted children; Spina bifida; CHARGE Syndrome; Hydrocephalus; Congenital disabilities; Complex medical needs; Pediatric neurosurgery; IEP and special education; Gifted education; Educational advocacy; Inclusive education; Hope and healing; Courage and strength; Love and perseverance; Raising different children; Disability acceptance; Parenting through adversity; Overcoming barriers; Finding joy in hardship; Special needs journey; Family unity and support; For parents of disabled children; For parents of gifted children; For educators and therapists; Christian parenting memoir; For families facing rare diagnoses; Real-life parenting stories; Memoirs about raising children; Stories of medical miracles
For more posts about Elizabeth and her books, click HERE.
Read more stories -- and photos -- about the Mahlou family in the blog (no longer maintained), Clan of Mahlou.
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