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Program Coordinator Elizabeth "Liz" Andersen Welcome. My name is Liz Andersen. I live in Weirsdale, just north of The Villages. I was born in Bloomington, Illinois and moved to Central Florida in 1988. I am married to Don, a very patient man with good old fashioned values!!!! We have 8 kids, Tony 31, he is married to a fantastic girl, Nicole, and he made me a grandma 10 years ago by having my first granddaughter, Mikayla. They live in Orlando. Chris, 28, also married to a wonderful girl, Tammy, and has blessed me with 2 more grandkids, Christopher (4) and Emily (1). They live 15 minutes from me in Summerfield. Meghan (14), Donald (13), Ryan (8), Joshua (8), Elliott (6) and Kathrine (5). My husband and I adopted 6 of our kids-- Meghan and Donald first. Then we became foster parents, because the need was so great and still is. We stopped a few years ago after we adopted all 6 of our kids. I miss being a foster parent and being with the kids to see them grow and help them get to where they needed to be, but I needed to focus on the needs of the 6 we had adopted. Without getting into a lot of detail individually about each of our 6 kids, I will just say that they have a variety of special needs including autism, schizophrenia, PTSD, OCS, short term memory, extreme ADHD, ODD, developmentally delayed, speech problems, sensory integration disorder, anxiety, asthma, epilepsy and learning disabilities....my life revolves around all my kids in getting them the help they need to be productive adults. They are very good kids! For the last 7 years our kids have been enrolled in a private Christian school through the Homebound Program. Last year I taught a social skills class for special needs kids. I am a 2009 graduate of the Florida Developmental Disabilities Council Partners in Policy Making Program. My family receive services from the Center for Autism and Related Disabilities (CARD) and I am a member of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), Class of 2009 Family to Family Training, HSLDA, Autism Society of America (ASA) and Choose Life. Prior to becoming the coordinator and director of "Oliver's Program" I had been, and still am, a member of the American Kennel Club (AKC). My son Ryan (now 8) has autism and was my inspiration for "Oliver's Program". Where he once would not communicate and was withdrawn, he now finds comfort in Teddy and can talk to his poodle when he can't seem to do so with anyone else. Teddy calms him and seems to have the same effect on our other children. In the past, my passion for dogs has always been for Warlock Dobermans that weighed about 100-150 pounds. But GOD works in ways that we cannot imagine and when we least expect it! All my friends laughed when I got our first poodle until I told them why. I have recently established the Shining Light Christian Academy, Inc. which is a private non-profit Christian Home-Based school for grades K-12. Shining Light Christian Academy enables parents to become the primary educators of their children/students while fulfilling the legal requirements by the Florida Department of Education. Our mission is to help, encourage, support, and protect our families while giving them the freedom to educate their children of all abilities. Please visit our website at http://www.shininglightchristianacademy.com for more information.
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