Dene Ward's Flight Paths

As I mentioned in my last post, I am taking part in a blog sharing group.  The one i shared with you titled  With New Ears was my submission to the group.  Well the group hosts liked it so much, they've decided to host it over on their main site @ maidservantsofchrist.com  Pretty cool, huh?  Go check it out!  Today all of us who are participating are sharing another writer's blog.  So I introduce you to Dene; a devotional writer.  Dene currently has two books out; Soul Food: Lessons From Hearth to Heart and Flight Paths: a Devotional Guide for Your Journey.  She writes over at http://flightpaths.weebly.com

HOLDING HANDS

I sat with my hands in lap, listening to the announcements.   When it came time for prayer, instantly two hands reached for one and held the until the amens echoed around the building.

The hand on the right was my husband's.  after spending thirty nine years together, it seemed only natural.   We are always touching, patting, and hugging.  To walk past one another without some sort of physical contact is unthinkable.   What has made this relationship even more remarkable though, is the spiritual sharing and touching.    Wen two people pray for the same things, hope for the same things, and endure the same things with the help of the same Comforter, two people who were so an like in the beginning that several people tried to talk us out of this marriage,  the closeness can only be with the help of the Divine Creator who united us in far more than just holy matrimony.

The other hand came from a friend, someone's have known for several years now, who has supported me in every way imaginable,  who has stood by me and lifted my name up in prayer, who has shared her own trials with me and allowed me to help her as well, someone who lives nearly fifty miles from me, whom I would never have known except that we share the same Savior and the same hope and a place in the same spiritual family.

Some people view holding hands in prayer as nothing more than an outward show of emotionalism.   To me those hands signify the unifying power of the grace of God.  That unity began with 12 men who never would have come together in any other way, and soon spread to add one more.   Some were urbane city dwellers who looked down on lowly Galileans.  Some were working class men while another was a highly educated Pharisee.  Some had Hebrew/Aramaic names while others' names bore the influence of  Hellenism.  One was a Zealot and the other his political enemy, a tax collector.   Yet The Lord brought the together in a unity at conquered the world.

I have held black hands and brown hands and white hands.  I have held plump soft hands and I have held rough calloused hands.  I have held the tender hands of the young and the withered hands of the old.   I have held the hands of lawyers and doctors and plumbers and farmers, teachers and nurses and secretaries and homemakers, hands that hammer nails and hands that toe on computer keyboards, hands that cook and sew and even hands that carry a weapon on the job.  We all have this in common --- our Lord saved us when none of us deserved it.  That is His unifying power.

The hand of God is the one that makes all of our hands worth holding.

May the God of endurance and  encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify  the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.  Romans 15:5-7

Dene Ward

So I am still in Florida and doing all of this on my iPad on borrowed wifi, so forgive my typos and I will feature a Little's Leaguer next time when I have access to my photos again.  

With New Ears

A few weeks ago, our new preacher gave a sermon on a Sunday night on a topic that I thought I knew all about.  I've heard the story a hundred times; Jesus was arrested, taken in front of Pilate, admits he is the son of God, and pays the price for it - paving the way for us to gain entry into Heaven.  I'm sure most of you have heard all about it a hundred times, too.  It's only the biggest deal in the Bible - it's the whole point of Christ on Earth.  But as I was sitting there, listening to Brother Dean describe all the details of what agonies Jesus went through, what God chose to allow to happen to His son - it was like I was hearing it for the first time.  In fact, it effected me so much, that I mentioned it to the preacher.  I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was that got to me, though.  Preacher Man could tell it was marinating in my head so much that he even stopped by house the next night.  I still didn't have an answer for him.  It didn't hit me until last Thursday as I was driving from Ft Campbell, KY to my parents' house in Arkansas.  Then it hit me square in the face.  I grabbed my phone and babbled a barely coherent note to Siri to write this blog as soon as I was back at home in front of my computer.

So why did the Lord's death leave me shaken in a way it never had before?  Because THIS woman had never heard the story before.  Yeah, I know I just said I had heard it a hundred times.  But that was before.  Before Little.  Before Duchenne.  You know, before.

See, I had never heard the story of the crucifixion with a set of mother's ears before.  Having a child changes everything.  Having a child with a chronic illness?  Well.  There's just nothing, no person, and not a single solitary event that I view the same as I did before.  I have more empathy for others, I assume that people are acting out of struggle more than just bad manners or rudeness than I used to, I carry more pain around with me (for myself, my husband, my son, my friends and family who are dealing with hardships, strangers on the news, sad stories on the internet, etc),  I judge less.  I don't mean that I am sad all the time - I am certainly not!  I guess, I just mean that I am softer now.  My corners are less likely to cut you.  This brief time I've had in the world of Duchenne and parenthood has completely altered my perception.

Hearing what our Lord had to endure, I could not stop myself from thinking about his own parents.  Not Joseph so much, because to be honest, I don't really know what happened to him after Jesus taught in the temple when he was 12.  The Bible doesn't say a whole lot else about him.  But Mary was there that day.  Mary was there as they were preparing him for the cross.  As Dean Roach (my preacher) was talking about the stripping of Jesus's robes and the beatings and spitting, I just kept feeling these stabs in my heart for his mother.  To see your child like that?  To know what was about to happen - that he was about to have spikes driven through his wrists as if he were a scrap piece of wood?  Mary had to witness something so unfathomable - her baby nailed to a cross.  Did you all know Jesus was scourged?  That means his beard was ripped off of his face - hand pulled off of his face.  So not only did she see her son on the cross, thorns in his head, but his flesh was missing from his cheeks and chin.  How Mary survived that horror herself, was only through the grace of God.  I sat there listening to Dean describing the details of that day and I couldn't help but think about the pain and suffering that I will have to watch my own child go through as his DMD progresses.  Little's muscles will begin to waste away soon and contract into themselves, painfully pulling away from his joints.  He will begin to lose strength and mobility as that happens, falling more frequently, bruising and scraping and breaking skin and bones along the way.  And as I sat there, comparing and contrasting Mary's experience with my own, one mother to another, I realized that God, too went through everything Mary did.  He's Jesus's father, so all of that parental pain and anguish Mary felt, God felt, too - except that God did it by choice.  God did this on purpose.

God did it for us.

Our God is an awesome God!  Knowing FULL well how horrendous that day would be, God still sacrificed his one and only son as payment for our sins.  He gave up his child for us.  For you.  For me.  For nasty old, pitiful, terrible, sinful, undeserving, scumbags such as ourselves.  He took a chance on us.  He let his son die that way on the shot of just one of us accepting Him as our Almighty, as his Son as our Lord and Savior and that we'd repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of our sins.  There are just no words powerful enough to thank Him.  I just...........oh man.  Nope, no words.  Magnify His name!  

Could I give up my son if it meant a cure for Duchenne?  Could I hand my son over to the wolves and let them rip him apart limb from limb if it meant that by doing so, all anyone with DMD had to do was believe in him and live for God and they'd be free from this disease?  That's essentially what Mary did.  She trusted in God, allowed her son to do what God called him to do, and endured the worst reality anyone could ever face.  The disciples even decided to take her away at one point bc they didn't want her to watch Jesus actually be nailed to the cross.  Then she came back.  She couldn't stay away.  No matter how terrible it was, Mary could not stay away from her son's side.  What a remarkable mother.  But could I do the same?  I don't know.  I would hope so, but I don't know.  I had trouble just handing him over to his surgical team earlier this week because of the elevated risk of death he has from anesthesia (more on that in the next blog).   But wow - what incredible parents Jesus had.  We should all be so in love with our children.  Keep in mind that we are all God's children, too.  He gave up one child (Jesus) to save the others (us).  "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have eternal life."  John 3:16

I think this particular sermon will stick with me for a very long time.  It has left some vivid images in my head and emotions in my heart.  I am excited to see what other lessons from the Bible are going to sound brand new to me with these "new ears" of mine.  The story of Job is another one that I was able to learn more from this go-round, too.  

If you are reading my blog for the first time today - welcome!  I know some of you are here from a little blog sharing I am taking part of as a christian blog swap group.  I hope you stick around and feel free to check out some of my older posts.  "The Diagnosis" is a good one to check out if you have no idea what I'm referencing when I talk about DMD or Little.

To my regulars - Next up: MDA Muscle Walk 2013, Little's surgery, & some RiDiCuLoUsLy fantastic pictures from his 3 yr photo shoot.  Little's Leaguer of  the month will be back next time, too!

God bless!

Katherine

I Win at Pinterest!

So, I can't take all the credit.  I might have had a teeny tiny bit of help.  Or a ton.  Or maybe all I did was find the pin, accompany my husband to Lowe's, and then make it look pretty.  Whatever, I totally win at Pinterest.

So last Saturday, I was trolling around on Pinterest while Mister watched something sports related on tv.  Allstar weekend.  That's what it was.  I vaguely remember asking him if Lamar Odom made it this year bc he cries when he doesn't get picked and he looked at me like I had a toe growing out of my forehead.  Apparently Mr. Khloe didn't play this season?   Cuz I pay that much attention?  So back to Pinterest.  I found this pin:

Classy Clutter's Pull Out Pantry Tutorial

Brilliant, right?  A pull out pantry utilizing the space between your fridge and the wall!  My pantry is tiny.

And this is the after picture, so when you get to the bottom of this, imagine all that stuff crammed in here with what you see in it now.

So I showed that pin to Mister and told him we should build it for our house since we have about 6.5" of unused space surrounding our refrigerator.  He said it looked doable to which I replied, "So what're you doing today?"  He laughed and said "Not building a pull out pantry".  Again I replied, "So what're you doing tomorrow?"  He just smiled and kind of shook of his head.  I took that as a yes.

Sure enough, after church the next day, with measurements and the shopping list Mallory at Classy Clutter so kindly listed in her blog, we headed off to Lowe's.  We bought all the raw materials we needed (and a shamrock for MDA) for about $85.00.  We got lucky and found a large piece of bead board with a crack in it in the clearance section to use for the back board for only $7.00.  We ended up being able to cut the part with the crack in it off.  Lowe's even cut all of the 1x6 boards for us for free, too.  The only thing they wouldn't do was cut the dowel rods.  

I headed home with Little to put him down for his nap and Mister headed to a friend's house to cut the dowels.  I started to get annoyed the closer it got to 6:00 because Mister usually stays home with Little so I can go to church.  It's hard to pay attention to the sermon with Andrew squirming and making noise so Sunday nights are my time to actually get to listen.  I ended up having to take Andrew to church with me since Mister was still at his friend's house.  To my surprise and complete delight, he texted me at the end of service a picture of the completed pantry!  He had stayed over at his friend's house putting it together!  I FOUND A PIN ON PINTEREST AND MY  HUSBAND ACTUALLY BUILT IT FOR ME!!!!!!!!  How often does something like that actually happen?!?!  Umm, I can now count to one time in this house!  Obvi, I was no longer annoyed that I had to miss parts of the sermon shushing Andrew.

I went to Target the next day and found some contact paper for the shelves and backboard.  I was just going to paint the back, but after painting the sides and trim, I remembered that I loathe painting.  I got the high gloss black paint at Wal-Mart and the green is left over from when I painted the house. I had to buy rollers and painter's tape, too.  Grand total of all materials for the entire project was just under $100 and since I have odor triggered migraines (paint fumes) and a toddler (so I could only paint during nap time and preK and for about an hour at a time to try and avoid the migraine.  I failed.), it took me 5 days to get it all painted and covered in contact paper.  It would take someone without those 2 obstacles 2 days with drying time.  And yes, the migraine was well worth it.

So here is what the Palmer version looks like:

Just showing that you can still open the fridge while the pantry is pulled out.

 No, this pantry is not 100% sturdy.  It is too tall and skinny to be left to it's own 4 wheels for stability.  To make sure Little won't be able to pull it over on himself, Mister Gorilla Glued a strip of wood trim to the floor, just behind the front wheels.  This way the back wheels catch on it and the pantry cannot be pulled out far enough for it to fall over.  It is still wedged between the fridge and the wall safely.  Plus it is too heavy for Andrew to pull at all - but this way, if I forget to push it back in and run to do something in another room, he has no way of tipping it over.

Do you love it?!!?  Remember all of that stuff used to be inside my tiny pantry along with what you see in the picture up top.  I freed up an entire shelf just by moving my cooking oils.  And there is still so much room in the pull out!  I only put those paper towels in it so it wouldn't be empty in the pictures!

So if you click on the link under Classy Clutter's picture to do this for yourself, here is what I would add:

~  if you use Lowe's, buy the 1x6 boards instead bc Lowe's 1x4s are actually .75 x 3.5 which are too narrow for bigger canned goods (so natch, these 1x6s are really .75 x 5.5)

~ contact paper on the shelves instead of paint bc you are going to scratch up your shelves with use

~ make sure you get a substantial handle bc the pantry gets heavy 

~ she doesn't talk about adding a stopper or some sort of tethering system, but you definitely want one since the pantry is not quite sturdy enough on it's own

~ think about skipping the backboard all together and just doing a second set of dowel rods on the back side (an open concept for your pantry!  lol)  *This is probably what I will do next time bc covering that board was a beast.

So a huge thank you to Mallory at Classy Clutter for posting this tutorial!  Here is a link back to her site again, if you missed it above: http://www.classyclutter.net/2012/05/build-your-own-extra-storage-diy-canned.html

And an even bigger one to my husband and Cliff who built this monster for me last weekend.  And yes, Cliff, I am working on your next projects.  You saw that was plural, right?  Be careful what you ask for......  :)

And now for your viewing pleasure, the vocal stylings of one mister Andrew Thomas Palmer.  Take it away, Little!

Our Little's League member of the week:  Ayla Grace!  (Or as Little calls her "my girlfriend")