Open Your Mouth- Cville

Hey you Charlottesville friends- Joab and I will be speaking (I'll be doing most of the talking, Joab will provide a whole lot of background noise) downtown at The Haven tonight. We'll be sharing a lot about what Special Hope has been up to for the last year and where we are headed in the near future. Come see us if you can- more details on Facebook!

Open Your Mouth- JMU

So, if you are anywhere around Harrisonburg tonight, you should come to Open Your Mouth! We'll share Joab's and my story and plans for the future of Special Hope! Come if you can...comment if you want details on where!

Hey Hey USA

Major change of gears since last post- Joab and I have made it to the US! After so much prep, planning, and a long trip- WE MADE IT! Joab couldn't have done better, and I am so thankful for a smooth flight. We're so excited to get to spend the next month with family and friends, and get to be here for Mom and Allen's wedding, Emily's graduation, and Dad's retirement from the Navy. Bring on the good food and fun!

Here are some pics from the journey, and from our arrival with Auntie Suz, CuzAunt Mary, and Cousin Jack...

Choosing to Celebrate

I sat on the couch, carefully cradling him in my arms. His lungs were working so hard to get air, and his forehead was burning up. I looked into his little eyes and just cried. I knew this would be the last time I got to hold him.

Francis died this morning.

He became part of the statistic I hate so much. He's now included in the 80% of children with an intellectual disability who don't make it to 5 years old. That statistic now carries so much more weight, and my abhorrence of it has increased more than I thought it could. It weighs more because it now has a face to go with it. It now has a name. It now has attached to it a moment when I had to say goodbye.

And so, I write tonight to make certain that he does not fade away into the numbers. To be sure that his face and name are remembered. He was fearfully and wonderfully made by His Father, and I want to celebrate it.

Don't misunderstand, I do not want to celebrate his death, nor the way he died. Someone (I don't know who...) will have to pay the price for the injustice he suffered- I am convinced God will not allow it to go unpunished. He will right every wrong, for Francis, and for each of those 80%.

I choose to celebrate, instead, that I got to be with him. For whatever reason, God saw it fit for me (and others) to be there with him for his last days and hours. I got to be one of the ones to make sure he knew he was loved. To cheer and beg him on as he ate and drank. To simply hold him and sing to him in between feedings. To be heartbroken when he breathed his last.

I still do not understand everything going on. I know that Francis will not be our last, but he will always be our first, and for that is reserved a most tender place in my heart. I pray that God make room in your own heart for him, that he be remembered by many who never even met him, and that his story would convict and compel your heart to whatever end God may choose. And as always, may our Jesus by ever so glorified as He does.

Here's to Hoping

Before we moved here, we always talked about it as an inevitability. The statistics wouldn't allow us to escape it. But I don't know that we could have ever prepared for the day when we would care for a child who was dying. And yet, here we are. Francis is 1 year 5 months old and weighs only 11 lbs. At roughly half his suitable weight, his organs are most certainly failing. His skin hangs off his tiny frame in sheets. His bones poke through and seem like they could break at the slightest touch. His eyes stare blankly and his mouth can barely handle the food we are trying to pump into him.

The reality is- Francis' little body is deteriorating. The hope, however, is- that God would step in.

Looking at him, it seems impossible...good thing that's His specialty. And though we know it's not His guarantee, we ask...we hope that God would step in and make His glory known through Francis' restoration.

Pray with us...