A commonly asked questions that we hear from friends who don’t have a child with a disability is, “Should we offer to help someone when their disabled child has a need, or will offering help offend the parents?” We generally know how we would answer that question, but this is an individual decision.

I was introduced to the notion of thin places several years ago by a dear Christian friend of mine from Ireland. The concept of thin places has its origins in Celtic spiritualism and later in the Christian movement in Ireland.

I’ve always been a sucker for a beautiful sunset.  I’ve been known to pull off to the side of the road just to take a picture of one.

Perhaps one of the greatest casualties that result from a difficult life situation is the loss of HOPE. Hope is a powerful force. According to the book of Psalms, strength and courage come from hope. Hope keeps us going, growing, dreaming and loving. A loss of hope is a great loss.

Everywhere you look, we seem to be enticed by the possibility of perfection. Eharmony.com can find you the perfect mate. A certain facial cream provides perfect skin. Liposuction can help you get the perfect body. “Cosmo” can tell you how to have perfect sex.

One of our favorite Christmas traditions is hearing and singing Christmas carols. There is something comforting about the familiarity of the carols and how we are still singing the same songs that we sang as children. My absolute favorite Christmas carol is “O Holy Night.

Forgiveness; probably one of the most powerful, yet difficult obstacles in our lives. We cannot underestimate how important forgiveness is to our faith walk, our relationships, and our overall health; truly a juggernaut in our lives with the potential to heal or destroy.

Over the past several weeks, we talked about the unique and varied challenges that face a marriage when couples are parenting a child with special needs.

We disagree in two ways. First, and of less importance, we disagree with the statement because it seems to imply that for us, raising Mary has been relatively easy. And if you are a parent raising a child with a disability, “easy” is not one of the words that come to mind.

I remember the day my husband and I sat in the doctor’s office in Washington DC’s Children’s Hospital and received the news that the concerns we had over Mary’s lack of development were indeed due to brain damage.

Often our blogs are about the unique challenges we face as parents of children with special needs. Although we acknowledge that there are indeed multiple challenges in raising our children, we also know that our lives have been forever changed, in a good way, – because of Mary.

We haven’t written our blog in the last few weeks as we were in China. We toured the country and visited our daughter, Emily, who lives and works in China. No matter how often we have said the words “our daughter lives and works in China” (and she has been there 3 years!), it is still hard to believe.

Happy New Year! Can you believe that it is the year 2020? With a year named 2020, perhaps our New Year’s resolutions should be something like, “to have a clear vision, improved insight or balance in my life”.

This past summer, we had the opportunity to speak at several Joni and Friends Camps.  This camp was started by the ministry of Joni Eareckson Tada and is for families that are affected by disability.

Over the past several weeks, we talked about the unique and varied challenges that face a marriage when couples are parenting a child with special needs.  

Everywhere you look, we seem to be enticed by the possibility of perfection.  Eharmony.com can find you the perfect mate.  A certain facial cream provides perfect skin.