Are you a person of “means?” Do you have plenty of funds in your bank account, a lovely home, fancy car? Do you own all of life’s little conveniences, electronic toys and expensive things? Truthfully, I am not a person of means. I do not own many of the things I have just mentioned. I…
I underestimate God. It is a mistake that I make too often. I feel my situations are enormous. The circumstances I face with my daughter with special and medical needs are challenging and scary. The fear and stress feel justified. My daughter gets distressed when her routine changes, which stresses me. I now dread times…
When life doesn’t go as planned, I usually react in one of two ways: either with equanimity and grace—because I’m with people I want to impress—or with grumbling and complaints—because I’m with my family, and they love me no matter what. Neither response follows Paul’s call in Philippians 2:14-15 to do all things without complaining…
This series is named for a Latin term, post tenebras lux, which translates to “after darkness, light.” It is an evergreen hope, that light that comes after darkness. It is seen in nature: the moon reflects the hidden sun. We may say the sun’s reflection in the moon is the hope we feel in the darkness;…
The phone buzzed with an incoming email. I was sitting in our minivan out in my parents’ garage hiding and crying – a full on ugly cry with gasping sobs. We were coming to the end of our visit to the Midwest where both of our families lived. It was only a couple of days…
It’s easy to become overwhelmed when your child’s condition is constantly changing, and it seems that each day brings more medical terminology to google. The things we search for online as caregivers are quite interesting at times. Sometimes all the searching just leaves us with even more questions than answers. We put so much weight in…
Waiting. I’ve been struggling with waiting lately, so today I looked up the definition: To allow time to go by, especially while staying in one place without doing very much, until someone comes, until something that you are expecting happens or until you can do something (The Cambridge English Dictionary). Waiting is something we’re very…
This summer has been quite memorable in my family for several reasons. If you follow my articles, you know that we committed to buy an Airstream camping trailer and have gone on a lot of short but memorable trips as we get more comfortable with towing. Our son Christopher has still been in the recovery…
For as long as I can remember, I have been drawn to Ruth from the Bible. I’ve been thinking about what qualities I admire so much about her. And I think it is that despite the hard, unexpected circumstances that happened in her life, she determined to put one foot in front of the other…
Spinning plates for all of us on the special needs journey is a “norm.” We know we can do it: spin a lot of plates all at one time, keeping them going, running from plate to plate and not letting any of them fall—because we have to. For many of us, it’s an instant reflex…