Here's a link to an article I just wrote for The Old Schoolhouse Magazine about the difficulties of having a child with medical challenges – hope it encourages you!  TOS is a fabulous magazine with a wide variety of articles for homeschooling families!

http://www.thehomeschoolmagazine-digital.com/thehomeschoolmagazine/2015x3#pg101

Joy Prom 2015

Wow - it was another beautiful Joy Prom this year at Alliance Bible Fellowship!  We had so much fun, along with about 300 volunteers, putting this together, but the best part was all of the lovely smiles of the participants and their families that day.  Can't wait for next year!

For a real treat, watch this video from our Joy Prom at Alliance Bible Fellowship!  This was a full scale prom for teens and adults with disabilities, including a red carpet entrance where each participant's name was called, professional prom photos were taken, and some great pamper stations were available to have shoes shined for the guys, and hair, make-up and nails done for the ladies.  My husband, Ronny, and I had the great blessing of being the coordinators for this very special day.  I'll never, ever forget these beautiful smiles. Can't wait for next year!

Joy Prom 2014 video

Merry Christmas from our home to yours!  May God richly bless you this coming year with His endless grace and love!

A Thousand Simple Kindnesses article

Here's another article I wrote for The Old Schoolhouse Magazine - my favorite homeschool magazine!  The article is about all the small kindnesses that you can show for families with special needs.  Doesn't have to be a huge, grand gesture; sometimes the simple things mean the most.  We are so grateful for the hundreds of times that someone took a few moments to encourage us along the way!

A Thousand Simple Kindnesses

Have we done enough?

As parents we ask ourselves this question all the time, "Have we done enough?"  When our children have special needs, and when we homeschool, thus taking full responsibility for their upbringing and education, this question seems to be a constant refrain.  Have I taught them enough?  Have I taught them the right skills?  Have they learned what they need to learn to succeed in life?  Have we helped form their character?  Have we dealt with medical issues in the best manner possible?  Have we done everything we can to give our kids the best start in life?  And, most importantly, have we helped them to love God with all of their hearts, and to become useful to their King?

I never, ever feel like I've done enough.  There are so many needs, in so many different areas, that I never get to the end of the day and sigh with gratitude that all needs are met.  Today is one of those days where I feel completely overwhelmed as my limits run smack dab into the mountain of needs.  So here's my pep talk to myself, which I hope will encourage you, as well!  God does not ask us for perfection as parents.  He does not ask us to do everything by ourselves.  He does not ask us to raise perfect kids.  And He certainly knows our limitations.  He only asks that we stay faithful.  That we walk one step at a time.  That we do everything in our power, and then ask for some of His power.  If Jesus promised, "that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:6), surely that applies to homeschooling and raising children.  Surely Jesus is reassuring us that if we stay faithful and allow Him to work in us and through us, He will fill in the gaps left by our inadequacies.  Surely, God loves our precious children even more than we do, and has equipped us to provide what they need as long as we lean on Him for wisdom and strength.  Take that, pity party!

A Little Something Extra

Here's a new article I wrote for The Old Schoolhouse Magazine - my favorite magazine!  It's the premiere homeschool magazine, full of encouragement and great advice - and totally free to read.  Hope you enjoy!

http://www.thehomeschoolmagazine-digital.com/thehomeschoolmagazine/201302/#pg90

Connections

My husband and I just watched the first two episodes of a TV show, Touch.  Now we turned our satellite off years ago (which in our rural neck of the woods means no TV), so we didn't know this was a hit show sweeping the globe.  But a day late and a dollar short, we stumbled on this series on Netflix and thought it looked interesting.  The theme has me reflecting on a very important spiritual truth.  In Touch, Keifer Sutherland plays the dad of an autistic son who sees the interconnections of disparate people all around the globe.  The son, Jake, can see the past, present and future, and how everything ties together - through numbers and patterns.  Only problem is that he does not speak.  So his dad has to figure out the clues Jake leaves him through numbers, thus helping different people along the way.  It's a very clever theme, and extremely well done.

But think for a moment about how this theme ties in with God's interactions in our lives.  Granted I'm pretty sure He doesn't show the future to anyone, not even a very cute boy with autism.  But God certainly knows the past, present and future, and how they all tie together.  He sees the intricate connections between people, and often brings people into our paths at just the right moment to meet an immediate need.  I am so often humbled by seeing how a decision that someone made years ago, can impact a situation today.  So, while the show is very interesting and intellectually stimulating, I found the symbolism decidedly encouraging.  It reminded me of something that we all know, but too often forget; that God is intimately involved in our lives, moving things hither, dither and yon for our best good, and His glory!

Blessings out of Challenges

I was musing this morning that many of God's most wonderful blessings in our lives have come through the hardest challenges.  No sane person would choose a difficult path if a simpler one was available.  And God certainly does not ask us to do hard things just because they are hard.  But how often do we find the richness of Christ's grace and kindness and love through the challenges in life.  That is when we grab a hold of His hand and allow Him to lead us where He will.  Those are the times that we often experience Him the most profoundly and when we are the least demanding about having our own way.  Those are also the times when He produces the most fruit in our lives as we are more willing to let Him shape us into the people He knows we can be.  Today, let us remember the  words of James 1:2-3:  Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.  Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Silly Seasonal Synonym Songs

From the excellent book, The ADVENTure of Christmas (p. 39) by Lisa Whelchel, comes this delightful challenge:

Work together and see if your family can guess these common Christmas songs and carols from silly synonym sentences.

1. Move hitherward the entire assembly of those who are loyal in their belief.  ("O Come, All Ye Faithful")
2. Small municipality in Judea southeast of Jerusalem.  ("O Little Town of Bethlehem")
3. Listen, the celestial messengers produce harmonious sounds.  ("Hark, the Herald Angels Sing")
4. Nocturnal time-span of unbroken quietness.  ("Silent Night")
5. An emotion excited by the acquisition or expectation of good given to the terrestrial sphere.  ("Joy to the World")
6. Embellish the interior passageways.  ("Deck the Halls")
7. Diminutive masculine master of skin-covered percussion cylinders.  ("Little Drummer Boy")
8. Obese personification fabricated of compressed mounds of minute crystals.  ("Frosty the Snowman")
9. Expectation of arrival to populated area by mythical masculine perennial gift-giver.  ("Santa Claus is Coming to Town")
10. The first-person nominative plural of a triumvirate of Far Eastern heads of state.  ("We Three Kings")
11. Tintinnabulation of vacillating pendulums in inverted metallic, resonant cups.  ("Jingle Bells")
12. In a distant location the existence of an improvised unit of newborn children's slumber furniture.  ("Away in a Manger")

December issue of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine

If you need a little encouragement today in your homeschool journey, check out the newest issue of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine.  It's inspiring and encouraging, as always!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all! Please enjoy this video of Ronny talking about how blessed we have been through the very special children God has given us to love and raise. It was made by our church for a special series on thankfulness. It touched my heart deeply, and I pray it will bring a smile to your face as well!  May God bless you richly as you reflect on His blessings, especially the grace of His son.

Joy in the midst of challenges

We attended the most wonderful webcast last week, called "The Works of God:  God's Good Design in Disability" with John Piper and several other excellent speakers.  It was so encouraging as we walk down this road of disabilities.  The point I keep thinking about is how we can see God's hand working through disabilities.  While we certainly experience many challenging times, God can give us joy in the midst of those challenges.  Not some, "fake it till you make it," shallow joy.  We don't ignore or deny the grief that we sometimes feel.  But we also have the hope of Christ in the midst of our sadness and struggles.  Two opposite emotions in the same heart at the same time.  We have hope and joy because we know that God is at work in the middle of our struggles and that He is using all things for His glory and our best good (Romans 8:28)!

Musings on Love

Here are some lovely words about love from my very eloquent, and loving, son, Josiah:

Do we ever stop to think what we are doing when we decide to love?  Love (take it in any sense you like, you can have your pick of the Greek) is an act of supreme hazard - some might call it a kind of violence.  There are, of course, differences in degree - the husband loves his wife with stronger ardor than one friend loves another - but the activity of the heart in both instances is of a piece.  In some way, some glorious, terrible way beyond our puny mortal comprehension, one heart is bound to another.  These very bonds which bring so much joy introduce the possibility of pain, as the very capacity to feel brings with it the potential for both pleasure and agony.  The bonds themselves are tainted by the filth of our hearts, as sin corrodes the psyche, clouding both judgment and emotion.  Yet the very fact that we are able to love at all is a miracle, a grace we should have no reason to expect from the Creator we rebelled against.

AND YET HE LOVED US FIRST.

Love itself is a kind of rebellion, an inclination of the soul which openly defies the power of darkness and its clamoring hatred.  The prince of darkness may still corrupt our love into a horror, a mere carnal desire or superficial attachment.  Yet when we love truly, with simple, honest devotion, we spite the enemy, moving - even if only by a fraction - toward the nature which we were intended to have, toward a vision of the Kingdom to come, toward the image of He who made it possible.

Love should not be an insipid, mewling little thing which we dress in the palest, least offensive colors and stoop to pet when it suits us.  This is not love, but an abomination masquerading as virtue in a world where virtue has no meaning.

Love is not harmless.  Love is dangerous.  Yet it is worthwhile, only insofar as it flows from the One who burns white-hot at the center of reality, Love Himself, the One who sacrificed His Son, who hung on the cross in agony, having done no wrong, that we might be truly loved.

Brothers and sisters, let's not proclaim our love - for each other and for the world - with platitudinous whispers and mutterings.  Let's declare our intent to love with one voice, roaring to the heavens.  Love is our battle cry, and our commander, and our prize.  Let us take love as seriously as He did.

Meaningful Existence

It breaks my heart that more than 90% of babies with Down syndrome are aborted when their mom has testing done during pregnancy.  This world is a richer and more wonderful place because of our special children with Down syndrome, and all the other children and adults out there.

John, John, John

We had a very interesting week in our homeschool this week.  First, we studied Johannes (John) Gutenberg, who revolutionized the world with the invention of moveable type for the printing press.  His invention ushered in an age where books could be published cheaply so they could be widely read, especially the Bible!  Then there was John Wycliffe, who fought against the abuses of power and unbiblical practices of the Catholic church of the late Middle Ages.  Among other issues he fought for, he wanted all people to be able to read the Bible so they could understand God's word for themselves.  Then the final John was John Hus who stood up for many of Wycliffe's ideas, including fighting against the sale of indulgences and fighting for the common people to have Bibles in their own language.

I look around my house and see many Bibles of many different translations, some fancy, some simple, including my favorite which is an app on the iPad.  It is almost unfathomable that just a few hundred years ago, most people did not have access to a Bible at all, let alone in a language they could understand.  Maybe I'll set the to do list down for a while tonight and go soak up some of God's wisdom and grace through his magnificent word!

As the deer panteth for the water ...

Just had to share a wonderful post from my son's Facebook page:


Josiah Wright updated his status: ""As the deer panteth for the water, so my soul longeth after Thee . . . " In a weird kind of way, I think that many times this very longing is the kind of thing we long after. We feel empty and unfulfilled, so we go searching for something to search after; or we know that we ought to be seeking the Lord, and thus, we seek to seek Him. If I'm truly honest, sometimes I feel more like praying for the desire than for the Object of that desire. Yet always, like the fiercely majestic, transcendent yet violently, world-shakingly, personally immanent Hound of Heaven that He is, God seeks after me instead. What a glorious, absurd story He tells with our lives!"

Walk Thru the Bible

Wow!  We just finished learning all of the signs for Walk Thru the Bible - New Testament.  My youngest son, Zechariah, and both of my sons who have Down syndrome, Benjamin and Gabriel, learned all of the signs and love practicing and showing off what they know.  Not only can they do all 77 signs of the Old Testament, and all 77 signs of the New Testament, but they actually are beginning to understand some of the events and how they fit together.  It's very exciting!!  Woo-hooo!

Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to college we go!

Our oldest son, Josiah, has been safely deposited at Patrick Henry College, with many smiles, hugs, prayers, and a few tears (ours, not his, just for clarification). It was very hard to let him go, but you gotta love a school where the college president and his wife pray for the parents, then ask the parents to pray for their son or daughter before saying the last good-bye. What an awesome, godly school! As our nine-year-old son, Gabriel (who has Down syndrome), watched Josiah walk away and realized he was staying and we weren't, through tears said over and over, "No, Josiah going! Josiah going!" Yes, Josiah is going exactly where God wants him, and we are so proud of the fine man he has become - but we will all miss him terribly!

It's What He Does Best in TOS Magazine

It's What He Does Best

Here's an article I wrote for The Old Schoolhouse Magazine about how God uses the unique challenges of raising children with special needs to draw us closer to Himself.  Hope you enjoy it!