A Year of Change

Change. We need change. That's all we're hearing right now from Barack Obama and John McCain, along with everybody else running for political office. What we have in place right now isn't working, and we need change. Funny, but this election really isn't different than any of the others--every candidate always says that we need change, that they are the only ones who can bring change, and then, once they are elected, they fail to deliver said change.

For us, though, this year really has been a year of change. In January, I went back to work full-time--something I desperately did not want to do. But, I had been praying that God would give me direction on whether or not to return to the workforce, and I asked that if He wanted me to go back to work, that He pretty much drop the job in my lap. He did. However, I was thinking part-time employment, but God had other plans. I've been working for the past nine months as the Ministry Assistant to the Worship Pastor at our church. Eric is a fantastic boss, and is very understanding of all the demands I have at home with taking care of Tim and trying to keep our lives running smoothly.

We've also been blessed with some adaptive equipment upgrades to our home, courtesy of Vocational Rehabilitation of Indiana. We now have a Surehands Lift System in our bedroom that can lift Tim out of his wheelchair and transfer him directly into bed, onto the toilet, or into the shower. The lift operates on a rail that is attached to the ceiling. The system is unbelievably easy to use and safe. We also had Open Sesame door openers installed on two of our doors. Now, Tim can enter or exit the house just by pushing a button.

My working full-time has been a hard adjustment as it has been next to impossible to fix decent meals, keep the house clean, etc. My gardens don't look very good at all this year--I did manage to get some flowers planted, but they're having to share a lot of space with the weeds that are quickly outgrowing them.

Meals have gotten easier now that we're using Dinner by Design. The meals are delicious, and I hardly have to spend any time in the kitchen at all. We've also just started using a cleaning service, The Cleaning Authority. It's wonderful to come home to a clean home!!

So, while this blog may seem like my own version of "My Favorite Things", it really is about change. Sometimes, in fact, most of the time, the change we need is not the change that we want. I did not want to go back to work full-time because I knew that EVERYTHING at home would suffer. We ate pizza and ravioli for six months until I finally had time to stop by Dinner by Design. The house only got cleaned if we were having company over, and that didn't happen often. My energy levels plummeted to the point that I slept all weekend, every weekend. But, God in His goodness has provided the tools that we need to make it work. We don't have it all figured out yet, but I am trusting God to meet our needs.