Are you finished?

"I'm done." I said to myself as I put my head in my hands, "I don't want to do this anymore."  I looked around helplessly and decided to pray.  "Lord, help me endure."

I felt like a child, asking the ever-present, all-rescuing parent for help.  I felt peace.  And then, then I heard this, in my heart...

He said, "It is finished!" And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.

John 19:30b

Wow!  At no point is my level of "done-ness" anywhere close to His.  And yet, He was not done, until it was finished.  He endured, He suffered, He persevered.  "For the joy set before him he endured the cross"(Hebrews 12:2).  That joy?  Our redemption.

Jesus endured unbelievable pain, rejection, scorn and shame, to fulfill what was required by the Law, to pay the penalty for sin.  It wasn't his sin he paid for.  It was mine.  It was yours.  And that future joy, of reunification between you and your Heavenly Father, that held him there. 

So, I guess I'm not really "done"!  If he endured for me, through his strength, I can endure what I need to endure.  It pales in comparison.

Mercifully, lovingly, there was no resentment at my whining, not condemnation for my weakness.  Just love, and grace.  For He has a heart that knows far greater pain than I could experience, and a love much purer than I could ever imagine.

Wedding Bells

 

Scott and I headed out Saturday to a wedding for close friends. It was so nice to dress up, Celebrate love, and dance with my man!! Weddings are my favorite!!

 

The bride, Nichole

And the proud parents!  Mr & Mrs T - we call them our 3rd family, as Scott was adopted into their family in High School and they are special people to us.

Birthday Boy!

Chica

In August our family grew, with the addition of an 8 year old, 7lb chihuahua named Chica!

Initially we fostered her, but it became immediately clear that she and Emma had a very special bond! Emma is her person, and they are adorable together. Thankfully she also likes the rest of us, and she and Duncan have fun together.

Don’t Settle

Maybe you can relate to this in someway. I'm not sure when my hip started to hurt. I just know that I complained about it, but I didn't pray about it, I just accepted it, like it's normal for things to hurt.

It sounds ridiculous, even to me, because if somebody told me that their hip was hurting when they walk, and it would cramp up, and they have back pain, I would tell them to seek help, something is wrong! But when it comes to myself, I'm much less inclined to ask for help, maybe I even believe in some subconscious way, that I deserve it. "I'm probably doing something that causes this pain, so it's my own fault."

Thanks to Springfield family chiropractic, my hip is infinitely better. And pain I had just fully accepted, and didn't even think about, has also been addressed and healed. I can turn my head the way I'm supposed to be able to!

But I'm always looking for a deeper lesson in things. This situation is no different.

How many of us accept situations in our life, that we would never tell people we love to accept. We would urge them to do something, to make a change, to take care of themselves. But yet we, simply dwell in the pain, sometimes unaware that help is available, other times unwilling to seek it out.

It looks different for everybody. You might be dealing with physical pain, unhappiness with your body, physical addiction, or literal pain. Or maybe it's emotional, and you have been hurt, abused, or neglected. You've accepted that negativity and isolation. Or maybe it's spiritual, and you live with guilt and shame for things that you've done, because forgiveness seems impossible, even to forgive yourself.

Our world is hurting,. Every single person, scarred by sin committed by us, and against us. Many of us are either living with the pain fresh and raw, bitter and angry, or we mask it, with substances, sex, shopping, self harm, etc.

What if we can actually heal the pain, we can change things. We can be changed. Yes, we need to pray, we need God to do what he does get all of this. But we need to take the steps ourselves to reach out, to look for Hope and help. Then, maybe our healing will help to heal the world.

Listed

Toby made a birthday list! Funnily our gift is not on here, so we'll see how that goes!!

Family Fishing!

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> On Saturday we got up well before sunrise to head to Ocean City, New Jersey. We spent four hours on a fishing boat, enjoying the warm weather and peaceful time fishing. We had a $20 prize for whoever in our family caught the biggest fish, and Emma won that!
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> Emma caught a flounder, and Seabass. Scott caught a sand shark, which is really a dogfish, Toby caught a small flounder. Both kids got to hold a puffer fish!
>

Gone Fishing!

This morning we spent 4 hours on a fishing boat.  We each had a rod and unlimited bait.  We stood side by side, no one had any advantage over another.  And we even had a prize of $20 to the family member who caught the biggest fish.

Yet, Toby spent over half his time NOT fishing.  Not bothered to sit or stand with his rod.  He was fine until about 3.5 hours in when he started crying bc he hadn't caught anything!!  I refused to "catch something " for him since I hadn't caught anything myself.

About 15 minutes before we returned to shore he put bait on his hook and dropped a line.  I prayed he would catch something even though he didn't deserve to!  Scott prayed with Toby to catch something.

Then the captain gave us a 2 minute warning, "fish hard, fish fast".

Shortly after, Scott heard "bring up your line".  So he did.  Then the captain told everyone to bring up their lines for the last time, at the same time as Toby pulled in his line saying "I got something!!"  And there it was, a little Flounder!

It wasn't big enough to win the competition, however, I am hoping he saw that God hears our prayers, shows incredible mercy when we don't deserve it, and comes through when you think time is up.  That is worth far more!!.

Really?

Has it really been two months since I posted?  Ugh.  Sorry if you've been waiting to hear about the crazy exploits of our family!!  I will take some time over the next week to show you some of what we have been up to.

For the record, September is my least favorite month of the year.  It is a cruelly hard transition from the 2 months of free-flowing summer in to a strict schedule of school, homework, swim practice and other commitments.  I think we maybe do ourselves a disservice by relaxing so much in the summer!!

On the flip side, we have Toby's 9th birthday (yes, 9!!) next Saturday, leading to a wedding on the 20th, and then taking the kids to see the Statue of Liberty at the end of October!!  So stay tuned for the pictures, and I'll strive to make at least a weekly post!!

Much love,

Deb

July

It just hit me what a busy month we have had!  It started in Virginia, with a wedding and meeting distant relatives for the first time.  Then we had two big barbecues at the house, on the new patio.  We had the brick work pointed on the house, and then Scott fractured a vertebrae in his back!  We headed to Florida for 5 days, and were swept up in the love and acceptance of the Moebius community before heading back home and wrapping the month with the Swim Team banquet last night!

The kids swam in 4 swim meets, had a great time and Emma also won the Coaches Award for her age bracket, for showing perseverance, good attitude, helpfulness and flexibility.

August appears as though it will be a quiet month, while Scott heals and we get some rest before the new school year is upon us. 

Time is moving so fast and it's bittersweet to see the kids growing up and having so many wonderful experiences.  Each step a step away from our tight family bond. 

But that's the greatest challenge of parenting, recognizing that these little humans don't belong to us, and are merely entrusted to our care for a short (but crucial) period of time.  What the future holds is not our to know, but we pray, trust, and hope that they have what they need to succeed in the plans God has for them!

Moebius Syndrome Foundation Conference 2018

Despite Scott fracturing his vertebrae last Sunday, we still made it to St. Petersburg Florida for the bi-annual Moebius conference!

Excited for the flight!

The Vinoy is a 90 year old hotel and it was fantastic!  Beautiful, and the room was huge with comfy beds.

The view from our room

The marina across the street

 The pool

Dinner the first night!

Before the conference started we visited the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, the home of Winter, from A Dolphins Tale. 

Winter's tale fell off when she was a baby and had been caught in a crab trap.  Emma loves the movie, so it was a cool trip.

Touching baby Rays!

We stopped at Clearwater beach for lunch and a quick dip in the Gulf!

Time for the conference!

We all met Jono Lancaster, a motivational speaker with Treacher Collins syndrome.  Jono is from Leeds in the UK and was the keynote speaker at the conference.  He also became a friend of our family!!

When we could get Scott to rest, he did!

Toby was 4 at the last conference, so this was important for him.  He attended a few sessions, including a sibling group lead by some therapists.

We met lots of kids, many who knew Emma from their moms showing her picture on Facebook!

Jono gave a great opening speech, really impacted us.

Then the kids could play!

These two got along so great all week, and helped me whenever I asked.  We are so proud.

Toby enjoyed the free continental breakfasts, eating more croissants than I could count!!  We really gave them a break on the calorie watch this trip!

These teens have a strong friendship and I hope one day, Emma can find similar friends who know what she deals with!

 The group picture of kids!

Then Emma held Leland, the newest member of the family, only 5 weeks old, with Moebius Syndrome.

The pool DJ had a hula hoop contest!

Emma performed at the talent showin front of around 300 people!!

Last breakfast!

This picture is from Friday evening, when some of the moms from the Facebook group all went out for a drink.   I wasn't anticipating the conference having a big impact on me, but it did and I made so many new friends.  Many knew me and Emma from Facebook and we had a lot of positive comments about inspiring people.

Truth is, many of these women have children with severe medical issues, and they are warriors!  They show grace and love under pressure I couldn't stand, and for those with little kids, they now have a sisterhood!!