In a Van Down by the River: and Other Adventures of a Born Again Aspie - Softcover

Longpre, Dana

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1936417693 ISBN 13: 9781936417698

Publisher: Pilot Communications Group, 2012

Synopsis

This is the adventurous story of Dana Longpre who’s life began at her Grandma’s house. At three years old Dana and her sister moved with their mom and her girlfriend across town. After eight years of living in this lesbian relationship, Dana’s mother broke up with her girlfriend, and then got back together with Dana’s biological father. Unfortunately he had many destructive habits, including drugs. Then her family left everything she’d ever known to travel across the country in a van all the way to Alaska to homestead with her family. After living in a campground for three months and finally moving into a tiny travel trailer with no heat or plumbing, the anger and abuse of her father became too much. It was at this point Dana and her sister were moved into the foster care system. Dana moved eleven times in three and a half years, which included two hospitals and a group home. During this difficult journey Dana found hope and healing in Jesus Christ, but as she matured through her adult years, she discovered that the pains of her life were overshadowed by something that always made her “different”. Here ability to blend in with social settings masked it for many years, but after her son came into the world “different” she began to put the puzzle together. “Different” soon became Asperger’s Syndrome (autism) for her son, and later she realized, for herself. This is Dana’s story of pain, hope, healing, and discovery.

About this title

About the Author:

Dana Longpre received a B.A. in Psychology with honors at Corban University (Salem, OR) in 1999. She has worked in group homes and contained classrooms with foster children and children with autism as a Behavioral Specialist for eight years. She and her husband also worked together as Youth Leaders for three years. Following this Dana came home to be with her son Nathan and home school him. She still enjoys being Nathan’s teacher, and on the weekends is writing music and leading worship for the elementary kids at her church. In her spare time she loves to go to the park with her husband and son, and when not having family time, she writes music and praise songs for all ages.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

“In spite of all our enthusiasm our trip was stopped short six hours after starting... Dad and Steve were yelling for us to run out of the bus and into a ditch. “The engines on fire!” they shouted. They really thought it was going to blow! The boys got the fire out, but the bus was dead. We had to walk into town and buy a used twelve-passenger van. Little did I know that when we got to Alaska this would be my actual home.”

About this edition

• Publisher: Pilot Communications Group
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1936417693
• ISBN 13: 9781936417698
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 244