Shining our Spotlight

We have had a long few weeks... and while I am not ready to get in the weeds of all of those details I do what out shine my spotlight on something....

I was talking to a friend the other night during a late night snack and I said one of the things I love to do is shine a spotlight on different organizations and places that impact families like ours... so I decided its been a few months since I have done a post like this... maybe you have some extra tax return money...

1. Ronald McDonald House. We are at rmh often and are very thankful for this amazing organization. We are making dinner at rmh in June... CLICK HERE for details if you want to join us for that. Here are some things that are also on their current wish list:
1. Individually wrapped snacks
2. White copy paper
3. Individual flavored  liquid coffee creamers 
4. Takeout containers in bulk
5. Ziplock bags (all sizes)
6. Toys new in packaging
2. Tubie Friends: I have volunteered with TF since Jilli was little. This year TF became its own non for profit! There also is a really LONG waiting list right now... to cover all of the kids on the current waiting list will cost $17,000! Thats a lot of waiting kids that are not turned away due to money... but it does mean that kids are waiting a long time right now. Can you help by donating? http://tubiefriends.com/
3. Sing Me A Story: Jillian had a story she wrote turned into a song last year. It was something she loved being a part of and something we treasure. You can buy Jillian's song for a donation to Sing Me A Story which helps other kids to get their stories. Also look around the website... there are a long of cool songs! https://singmeastory.org/stories/thunder-and-the-rainstorm
4.  Tiny Superheros: This organization sends children with medical needs an awesome cape... then they have monthly missions to earn patches for the cape and those missions teach skills that kids can use while in the hospital https://tinysuperheroes.com/
5.  Make A Wish: Jilli was able to go on a Make A Wish trip to Disneyland in March of this year. It was AMAZING! We are all so thankful and grateful for the trip!!! https://wisconsin.wish.org/
6. Shriners Hospital: both of the girls get their leg braces from Shriners! The amazing thing about Shriners is that they do not charge a family for whatever insurance does not pay!!! And children still get state of the art medical care there. Jillian also received and adaptive bike from Shriners last year. https://www.shrinershospitalsforchildren.org/shc
7. Brynlee's Hope: We met this family at RMH and they hearbreakingly lost their daughter a few weeks ago. Since her passing they have started a non for profit to give kids in hospitals hair bows! https://www.facebook.com/brynleeshope/
8. Gracie's Gowns: This organization provides hospital gowns for kids that are personalized for the child. Jillian's hospital stay a week ago was the first one where she didn't have one of her own hospital gowns (she outgrew hers) and she was sooo bummed! This gives kids in the hospital something to wear that is theirs. https://www.graciesgowns.org/

Anxity

One of the things my life has brought me is multiple views on many things... man high school me had so many opinions... but as I get older (and am very far from knowing everything) something that I am grateful for in life is that many things that have occurred in my life have made it so I can see multiple sides of an argument. It has made me feel more compassion for people what I might not have ever agreed with... and the thing is that in some of those situations I might still hold the same views that I did before, but life has taught me more compassion.

I mean we all don't want our kids to be adults with a "past" but the reality is that healthy emotional people do have a past... you should be growing...even in small things. You should be learning by your life circumstances. Now I sure hope my kids don't get to my age and have some crazy past that they need to seek a lot of help to work though, I hope we are able to mentor them in ways that point them in healthy directions, but I don't want my kids at 30 to do the same things they did at 15.

There are not a ton of places that I have not felt safe in life and honestly in most of the places that I felt unsafe was just my privileged of my life circumstances causing me to fear places I did not understand. There have been some places that hold some strong emotions for me, but its been a while since that was the case... as an adult I am able to choose where I go and as a run from conflict and fear person I tend to shy away from uncomfortable situations. 

The last 24 hours I have to keep reminding myself that I don't need to run.

Everything in me wants to run home and hide away...

But that is not the best option...

and I am ok...

I don't need to run...

We are at our home away from home right now for our first set of post second opinion doctors appointment. We need to have a lot of conversations about testing, results, and recommendations. But that also means that I need to hash some of the really hard stuff out.

I am thankful that we are doing this a month and a half after:

1. I am less emotional about it all... doesn't mean that I don't still feel the same way, it just means I am able to speak about it more clearly.
2. When we first landed off that airplane I wanted to run here because here felt safe, but that would not have been the emotionally healthy thing to do... I needed to go home and deal with emotions.
3. We needed to take our trip and have some time to lay the stress down.

I know we have an amazing team here. I know this house that love built knows how to surround me with love. I know my kids are so loved here.

I know the people here are amazing. Today alone we got to spend time with friends and got to do some relaxing things. We had one appointment but tomorrow is labs and our people here keep asking how they can support and love us. I brag about this place and these people all the time, but truly they are amazing. They are loving us through our mess right now and sometimes that is just what has to be done... we need to walk through things... not run away... which means facing feelings... and I am so grateful for the people that love us in the midst.

So this week if you could pray for clear communication, calm nerves, and for us to have grace with ourselves to walk through... not to run or shove the feelings away (also to not get stuck in the feelings) but to take each next step.


Today's songs in my head:
Trust in You by Lauren Daigle
Prophesy Your Promise by Bryan and Katie Torwalt