A thankful tree!

Psalm 100

A Psalm for giving thanks.

1 

Shout to the Lord with joy, everyone on earth.

2 

    Worship the Lord with gladness.

    Come to him with songs of joy.

3 

I want you to realize that the Lord is God.

    He made us, and we belong to him.

We are his people.

    We are the sheep belonging to his flock.

4 

Give thanks as you enter the gates of his temple.

    Give praise as you enter its courtyards.

    Give thanks to him and praise his name.

5 

The Lord is good. His faithful love continues forever.

    It will last for all time to come.

A year ago, I posted this scripture on this blog post. A year has gone by, and I can't believe it. A year seems so long, but for me it flown..and yet time still seems to have stood still.  In all the celebrating, and JOY Clara has brought to our hearts and our home, there still remains a steep journey we are on. 

Madeline and I just recently made a Thankful tree. Our Nurse Joni found the acorns on a hike, and I picked the twigs from our backyard tree. We hand wrote names and things we are most thankful for. Family, friends, doctors, each nurse we have, Clara's therapists, the army, Jesus, mommy, daddy, maddie, clara, .....so many leaves we made. 

I especially love the ones Madeline made, and how each word was misspelled. I'll keep those forever!!!

I enjoy looking at it everyday while I am in the kitchen and reading the names of everyone we love. 

The thing about our journey, our very steep journey is all the wonderful people we have met. Friendships that have been made stronger. All the new names we can add to a tree. Just more and more folks to love and support us, and us them. I am again "thankful and reminded just how I need to approach this Holiday. Praising God, for what he has given me, not given me, and for getting me through the past year and getting me through what is to come".

I also want to paraphrase and share a letter I most recently wrote to both our 

families.

This past Monday was the day we learned that our Clara has Cerebral Palsy. 

For me and Jason this just confirmed what we knew and what has been

suggested. However it doesn't matter whether we were

surprised or prepared the words still come as a

shock. 

Cerebral palsy is a movement and posture disorder.It is not a disease

instead a condition that is the result to damage to the

brain.  It effects between 2 and 5 children out of

every thousand. No two children with CP are exactly like,

just depends on and where the brain damage

is. 

We have been told that hers is more likely

diplegia(affecting legs only) or quadriplegia which is the

(affecting all four limbs). Only time will reveal

which one. 

Besides the trach Jason and I are going through

a separate process of understanding what is happening. We

have been deeply sad  and will have many more

moments to go through in accepting that Clara is

disabled. It feels as if we have an enormous weight on

us with it all, and it is so overhwelming.  I

do know in time this intensity will lessen, but for now we

just ask for much prayer, understanding and permission to

cope.

Besides this we do also know that Clara

has Corticol Visual impairment, which will be another

hurdle for her.  The doctor told us today that we must

take care of each other, because we have a rough road ahead.

Jason and I have certainly been through our share in our

short ten years together, and even though this is not what

we expected we have an enormous amount of

love for each other and for our girls. Also most

important we know how much God loves us, he will never leave

us, and that he has a plan.

With everything I don't understand or know,

there is one thing I do know is that God

gave Clara to us for a reason, and that she will

continue to give Jason, Madeline, and myself an

enormous amount of JOY..more than we could ever imagine.

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For 14 months you all have been apart of Clara's journey. I always wanted her life to be BIG, and for her story to be a testament of God's love and grace. That has not changed for me. 

Clara is just simply amazing for who she is,  and so is my Maddie. I love them both!