Fifteen years ago, it was just a huge, fallow farmer’s field, streets cut in and lots subdivided. Still, it was a little piece of heaven on earth to young families like us, longing for a new place to call our own. We were one of the first families on the block, buying a “spec home” where we hoped to raise our 4-year-old and 1-year-old. Everything was new with promise. How would we landscape? How … [Read more...]
SO Much To Be Grateful For!
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. ~ 1 Chronicles 16:34, NIV ~ Sitting in a meeting with a local business owner, I found myself sharing with him what I share with everyone who seems to feel sorry for those of us raising children with special needs. We are SO blessed to be living at this point in time and in this country. We have SO much to be … [Read more...]
Are You The Dead Sea or The River Jordan?
Raising a child with special needs can be exhausting. You won't find anyone in our circle of parenthood disagreeing with that. We can easily empathize with the mother who is discouraged and worn down, or the frustrated father who feels he can't do enough for his family. We knowingly nod when we read articles admonishing us to engage in better self-care. However, I would also say that we … [Read more...]
4 Powerful Questions For The Hurting Soul
Why didn't you TELL me? How many times do we find ourselves in the shock of another person's crisis, only to find that things have been quite bad for a long time? A serious surgery is suddenly scheduled with the possibility of great peril. A child commits suicide. A family's home is in foreclosure. At times like these, those of us around the victims find ourselves grossly inadequate, … [Read more...]
Guarding Closely Who Defines Our Children
All day long my enemies insult me. Those who ridicule me use my name as a curse. ~ Psalm 102:8, NOG ~ In the book THE HELP, set in early 1960's Jackson, Mississippi, a housekeeper named Aibileen carries out a subtext in the story line by supplying her homely charge, Mae Mobley, with the love she is so sadly lacking from her own mother. Each day, Aibileen rocks the young girl, counteracting … [Read more...]
I’m Running Away From Home
That’s it! I’ve had it! I can’t take one more day like this, so I’m running away from home, and I'm never coming back. You know the type of days I’m talking about. These are the kind where everyone wants a piece of you, and there’s not enough to go around. First, there are my oh-so-needy kids. Despite their age, I can barely use a bathroom without them requiring something of me. “Mom! I’m … [Read more...]