Cerebral Palsy Awareness Day

Today is Cerebral Palsy Awareness Day. According to recent research by the Centers for Disease Control, one in 278 children is affected by cerebral palsy and it’s the most common cause of motor disability in childhood. While most people have heard of cerebral palsy, very few know anything true about it, and most adults don’t have much experience with people with cerebral palsy. Until about twenty years ago, parents were persuaded to put children with physical disabilities away in institutions, so they were rarely seen in normal everyday life. Fortunately for all of us, this has changed. Children with CP grow up with their families and often are able to live relatively independently. And this means that we have the privilege of interacting with these amazing people much more often.  

I'm guest-writing over at Special Mom Talk today. Read the rest of the article there, and check out the rest of their resources for families with special needs children of all types.

Princess Party

...because you only turn five once.

(Do not be misled. Despite the apparent bliss, this party was not without its fair share of tears and tantrums. Lesson Learned: five little princesses are easy to entertain. Add a toddler boy into the mix and now you have an explosive combination!)

Stuck Between Two Horses

(This is the second part in a series. Read Part One here.)

The rodeo cowgirl enters the ring, levitating between two horses gliding around the ring. Her left foot in the left horse's right stirrup and right foot in the right horse's left stirrup, at full gallop, somehow she leaps...the audience holds their breath... and lands, one foot on each horse's back. The horses' feet pump in perfect rhythm, backs rising and falling in sync with one another, as the acrobat stands, perfectly balanced..

As I have written previously, after throwing everything in my faith out and starting over, I eventually settled in my mind that a Divine Being, a Prime Mover, a First Cause is the best explanation for the origin, beauty, and function of the world and the universe around it.

But once there, I discovered I had a long way to go to get to the God of the Bible.

I'm stuck between two horses,one foot in the stirrup of each. But I'm no cowgirl. And these horses run at different paces and sometimes in different directions. I'm clinging tightly to anything I can grab hold of, stretched to the breaking point at times, sometimes dangling upside down choking on dust with my head dangerously close to the dirt.

One horse is the comfortable religious faith and practice I've always found myself in, and in which our family is now: reformed, Calvinist-ish, full confidence in the Bible as inspired by God, etc. This horse is mostly predictable, but not completely.

And one horse is the uncomfortable not knowing anything for sure beyond the existence of God. It is wild at one moment and almost still the next.

I ride them both, waiting for enough something to guide me to commit to one horse or the other. Or maybe to another mount altogether.

How do you learn about a Divine Being, exactly? I am convinced a Prime Mover or a First Cause exists, but is he/she/it knowable?

I can deduce a few things by observation. This being can create and design intricate systems from beyond the largest scale we can imagine down to a smaller scale than we can imagine. A universe and a virus -- what complex and fascinating things!

This being loves beauty. And sees beauty in variety, not in sameness. Why else would we see hundreds or thousands of varieties of tree, flower, animal, and persons?

But that kind of being, while intimately acquainted with everything, seems rather too large and truly awesome to actually know.

So how can so many people seem to know God? How do they know they know God, the real and true Divine Being, not one of their own imagination?

So, I've placed my foot in the stirrup of this horse of not knowing but searching for answers to the question, "What do we know about God, and how do we know it?" I have read spiritual memoirs (see sampling on last year's book list), talked with friends of many spiritual stripes, studied theologies, studied criticisms of those theologies, and tried to sift through the myriad interpretations and personifications of the divine.

Some are beautiful. Some are bizarre. Some are approachable. Some are frightening.

But I have not yet found for myself the quiet confidence I admire in so many.
 
At the same time, my other foot is firmly fastened into the other horse's stirrup. I am a wife and mother in a practicing Christian (Protestant) family. When all this started, my husband was a leader in our church, and we both had many responsibilities. Having a Type A (uber-responsible) personality, I couldn't possibly walk away from that and leave people hanging. And I couldn't tell anyone.

Today, we attend a new church, and I don't feel so much pressure to hide behind a mask of complete confidence. I'm listening, asking questions, talking to women who I respect.

But my kids are also listening, asking questions, and watching. I often hear myself answering questions the way I'm supposed to but without confidence in the answers. Some day, maybe already, they will hear that.

It really does feel like I'm in a rodeo. I'm riding two horses that sometimes try to head in two very different directions. I'm trying to avoid being thrown, trampled, breaking my neck, while looking for the stepping stones, the missing links between a Divine Being I don't know much about and a God who revealed himself in the Bible. I hope it exists. I think I have pieces of it... but not enough to hold together on their own yet.

Have you found the stepping stones? How did you do it?

Are You Still Memorizing? [Week Six]

If you're like me, you're trying to squeeze memorizing time in between wiping drippy noses and helping little ones with aching tummies. We've had a couple kids down with various germs the past week, and I've personally felt like I was on the verge of the tummy one for days.

So I haven't made any progress at all memorizing the next four verses of Philippians 1.(I told you I'd be honest about this, right?)

I'm a bit discouraged. One part of me whispers, "Maybe this isn't the right time for this project. Maybe you should wait until things settle down." But then the other part of me retorts, "There's never a right time, and things won't ever settle down! Keep at it!"

So I'm going to try, again, to get verses 19-23 down this week.

How far have you gotten? What challenges are you facing to getting through chapter 1?

This is part of an [almost] weekly series on memorizing the book of Philippians. Catch up on previous posts here:

• Part One - Will You Memorize Philippians With Me? (or "Why Would I Do a Crazy Thing Like This?")
• Part Two - Memorizing Philippians - Week One
• Part Three -Memorizing Philippians - Week Two
• Part Four - Memorizing Philippians Project Update - Week Three 
• Part Five - Week Five of the Memorizing Philippians Project

Lisa Leonard Remembrance Necklace Giveaway

I've been admiring Lisa Leonard's jewelry for a couple of years now, but  never saw just the right piece... until today. She launched "marked by love - audrey's necklace" today. It's a collaboration with Angie Smith, whose daughter Audrey passed away the day she was born almost two years ago.

You can personalize the back with anything you want... for example, the name of the child you lost.

Lisa is giving away two necklaces on her blog. Click here to enter to win!