Welcome to "Our Special Needs Life"

Update: I have decided to re-post this welcome message because it says so much about what the purpose of starting this blog was in the first place.

Original Post:
Our family life began with Ken and Lori. We were married and started our journey together in August 1996. Our first daughter, Megan was born in October 1999 weighing in at 7 lbs. 5 1/2 oz. Our second daughter, Monica, was born in May 2001 weighing in at 8 lbs. 9 oz. We were excited to have our two girls born close together so that they could become close friends and enjoy one another throughout their lives. However, shortly after our second daughter Monica was born, we began to realize that some red flags that we raised concerning Megan's development would highly impact our family's daily life as well as how we each relate to each other, the world, and to God.

Our plans for living our lives "the right way" with two amazingly well-behaved girls (effortlessly, of course), loving our jobs, providing a nice home, and seamlessly pacing through all the major stages of life together - CHANGED FOREVER!

The more we learned about our daughter's condition, the more our lives instantly changed until we had no choice to simply put everything we trusted in completely over to God. It seemed that no aspects of our lives were safe from the effects of our daughter's illness. When you have a child with a serious illness, the whole way you think, live, and breathe is different. You view the world from a completely different perspective. And, some days, it feels like the world also views your family from a completely different perspective.

Our prayer is for that everyone who reads the words on our site may be encouraged, uplifted, amused, informed, and delighted all to the Glory of God who made us, with no mistakes! It is only by His grace that we all get up every day, face the challenges that come with pride, and live as a steward of His love to the rest of the world. For our success is not in what we accomplish throughout our lives but how we go about our lives being thankful for everything we are given and teaching others to praise amidst whatever circumstances may present.

Please enjoy our thoughts, antics, advice, information, and family history knowing that we are taking this journey together, one step at a time. We LOVE to hear comments, stories, suggestions, clarifications, and situational humor from our readers who consider themselves "Special Needs Families" as well.

Reflection:
When I was a young girl and we would go to my Grandparents house, there was quite a lot of "Jesus" and "church" talk. My Dad was a minister and my Grandparents were mature Christians. I would remember listening to them talk about concepts, religion in general, or songs that they loved. I can still hear my Grandfather's voice saying, "That's a hard one!" I always thought, "it's just a song!"

Now, I get it. It's not just a song, verse, saying, or quote. It's so much more. It's a feeling that creates so many thoughts and ways to analyze how to bring glory to the God who made us and gave so much for us so that the things that we go through in our lives don't have to be so painful forever!

When I wrote this paragraph on May 7, 2009, I had no idea that this blog would become the documentation of the end of a wonderful life as well as a great source of encouragement and support for our family.

"Our prayer is for that everyone who reads the words on our site may be encouraged, uplifted, amused, informed, and delighted all to the Glory of God who made us, with no mistakes! It is only by His grace that we all get up every day, face the challenges that come with pride, and live as a steward of His love to the rest of the world. For our success is not in what we accomplish throughout our lives but how we go about our lives being thankful for everything we are given and teaching others to praise amidst whatever circumstances may present."

(Now, that's a hard one to live by, especially considering what has transpired with our family since then. But still very true. We are doing our best to believe that there was no mistake and to keep praising in the midst of these very emotional times.)

I have decided to continue the initial purpose of this blog by telling more of Megan's story in an effort to encourage those going through similar journeys.

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