by Evana Sandusky | Oct 5, 2022 | Caregiving, Medically Fragile, Special Needs Parenting
I stood in the middle of a cornfield with my daughter, surrounded by brown cornstalks towering over our heads and the dry, dusty earth beneath us. Footprints from other maze adventurers marked the beaten path. Our group of family members that we started with was now...
by Jolene Philo | Sep 26, 2022 | Medically Fragile, Mental Health, Special Needs Parenting
Our pastor was introducing a new sermon series about beauty when these four words, which I had never strung together before, which I did not want to string together, took up residence in my brain. My response was swift and prickly.The beauty of disability? Why would I...
by Jolene Philo | Jul 25, 2022 | Caregiving, Medically Fragile, Mental Health
How can I make you feel safe? This question runs through my mind every time I enter the room in the long-term care facility where my mother lives. When I walk through her door today, she is asleep in her recliner, her body listing to the left as usual.I put my things...
by Jolene Philo | Jun 27, 2022 | Caregiving, Medically Fragile, Special Needs Parenting
“Hi, Mom!”At the sound of my voice, her gaze moved from the open window to me. A smile lit her face when she caught sight of the bouquet of irises in my hands. “They’re beautiful! Where did you find them?””They’re the first...
by Jolene Philo | Mar 28, 2022 | Caregiving, Medically Fragile, Special Needs Parenting
What caregiving is teaching me about writing fiction could fill a book. If someone had tried to tell me, when I was a kid emptying my dad’s urinal and operating his Hoyer Lift, that caregiving and writing have a lot in common, I wouldn’t have believed...
by Joe and Cindi Ferrini | Feb 21, 2022 | Medically Fragile, Special Needs Parenting, Spiritual Growth
“Are you willing to spend and be spent; not seeking to be ministered unto, but to minister?” asks Oswald Chambers in My Utmost for His Highest. He continues, “Some saints cannot do menial work and remain saints because it’s beneath their dignity.” You’ve met that...
