lucy

TOMORROW is Lucy’s 16th birthday. How can it even be possible that this little bundle was born SIXTEEN YEARS AGO?? She was a spitfire from the very start. And oh boy we love her. It is a strange feeling to have a child turn sixteen after a string of four…

BBS (Bardet-Biedl Syndrome) is a genetic “rare disease” that affects approximately 1 in 250,000 people around the world. It causes all kinds of things to go haywire in the body, including kidney failure, heart problems, obesity, polydactyly (extra digits), and retinal degeneration (blindness). My brave, beautiful, stubborn, strong daughter is one…

In a discussion with some neighbors the other day we somehow got talking about miracles. We talked about how sometimes we have to recognize the miracles. We have to be looking for them or they may slip by unnoticed. And those miracles may come in a different form than we…

When I was a teenager sometimes my dad would hold down the fort at home while my mom took a day to go write. All alone. They were (are) authors and with a gaggle of nine kids at home she would love that opportunity to have time to think and…

Since we’re talking stories (last post), let’s delve into a new one today. There was once a girl who was brave and courageous. Because of an extremely rare syndrome, she dealt with dwindling vision loss and some other struggles with learning at school. That girl also had a will of…

There are lots of ups and downs in life. Especially when you’re a teenager. Lucy was in the middle of some tricky emotional navigation a little while ago, and I had this undeniable nudge that we should read The Hiding Place together. You know how some people are filled up…

I was talking to a friend the other day. A friend who also has a teenager with some special needs. It was so good to be able to relate on some things we are traveling through as mothers. The way our families have adjusted, heaved and shifted as the “special”…

This summer, instead of girls camp, the youth in our church congregation had the opportunity to go to something called FSY the next day (For the Strength of Youth). Kind of a glorified “summer camp” with counselors and classes and dances and so many opportunities to learn and grow. Lucy…

There were a whole slew of things right at the end of the school year leading up to graduation that I want to remember all together, so here we go. Our church congregation put together such a nice evening celebration for all the kids graduating: We had dinner and got…

I think it’s so true that people who can’t see can “feel” more. Lucy can feel music so beautifully. She can’t see sheet music these days. So I think I’ve mentioned before that her awesome piano teacher uses a huge staff and writes out music for her to read. But…