our own trip to Holland

Today I was startled by an overwhelming out pour of sympathy. I for the first time ever posted publicly about my daughter's diagnosis. I was surprised by the reaction and it took a while to digest it actually. I was appreciative for the support and not wanting to be disrespectful toward those who obviously care about us but it never occurred to me to feel sorry or that others might feel sorry for us. We have been living with a different normal for almost 2 years, this diagnosis wasn't a surprise but a blessing. Knowing what is affecting our lives gives us the tools to serve her better, it's covered by insurance where as the term "developmental delay" is not covered. Faith has hypotonic cerebral palsy. She is beautiful and wonderful the way she is, she doesn't need to be fixed. There was a time when she was brand new when I grieved the lost plans I had for her. Occasionally I still feel a sting when we encounter a new hurdle or when those days at the doctors get really long. I'm not sad about our daughter's extra needs, as a mom I see extra hardship for her and at times I am pained for her in those times but overall I feel blessed. As an advocate I feel excited to have been trusted with such a precious gift. Faith doesn't need sympathy; she needs to be embraced and empowered. Thank you for those who care and who maybe don't know what to say, above all thank you. Please use us as an opportunity to learn if you haven't been close to a family with special needs. Please know that we have our ups and downs and so far more ups than downs and we want to celebrate and share all we have been blessed with.

Faith's developmental therapist recommended an essay written back in 1987. I felt like it is an accurate and well written piece.

Welcome to Holland

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to imagine how it would feel.
It is like this...

When you're going to have a baby, it is like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guidebooks and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The Gondolas of Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It is all very exciting.

After months of anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bag and off you go. Several hours later the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, 'Welcome to Holland'. 'Holland? ' you say. 'What do you mean Holland? I signed up for Italy! ! ! I am supposed to be in Italy. All my life I have dreamed of going to Italy! '.

But there has been a change in flight plan, they have landed in Holland and there you must stay. The important thing is that they have not taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It is just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guidebooks. And you must learn a new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met before. It is just a different place. It's slower paced than Italy. It's less flashy than Italy. But after you have been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills, Holland has tulips, and Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy and they are all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life you will say, 'Yes, that is where I was supposed to go, That's where I had planned'.

And the pain of that will never, ever go away, because the loss of that dream is a very significant loss, but if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't go to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things about Holland. 

Written by Emily Perl Kingsley (in 1987) 

confessions of a wannabe runner- part 1

"Why would I run more than a mile? What could possibly want to chase me more than a mile?"
...famous last words HAHAHA

These are MY famous last words. I really do not run and have never wanted to run and never understood why someone would run. What would chase me that far? If I'm not being chased then why am I running?! About 3 years ago I decided that all the runners I knew/saw were skinny. I decided that it didn't look too hard (forgetting all my years of torture in P.E.) and than I too could be skinny through running. I quickly remembered my years of mile runs through my school year and I decided that NOTHING was worth running from for more than a mile. Goodbye running.

Fast forward to spring 2012...

I was sitting in church one day and they played a video to promote Run for Heaven's Gate which is a series of 4 half marathons in 4 weeks. I had seen the videos before and I know a few people who have run for this precious cause. The thought of it always flew out of my mind as quickly as it was introduced. Last year I actually considered getting involved somehow but with a new baby and a busy schedule I dismissed the idea. So why this year as I sat in church watching this video would I feel so compelled to actually run a total of 52.4 miles in 4 weeks? Perhaps I finally reached a breaking point after a very rough year. Maybe I have been searching for some way to get involved in our church's India missions. Maybe I've gone completely crazy. There is definitely a God factor at work here. The more I thought about it, the more I needed to do this. I started out with 2 reasons in mind; the first is selfish- 2 years into my battle with a still unknown auto-immune issue I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it and take back my body. The second reason is much less selfish; Heaven's Gate. 

Heaven's Gate is an outreach in India. It is one of many outreaches that my church started to spread God's love and offer any support that they could in a rough place. This particular outreach is a haven for people who have HIV/AIDS. Medicine and care are hard to come by in this region even for people in good health. People who have HIV or AIDS are shunned and their lives are pretty bleak. Heaven's Gate offers food, shelter, medicine, education, and best of all; love. 

There are a lot of worthy causes all over the world including ones in our own country but for some reason this fell near to my heart. It was a big step of faith for me to commit to this both physically and financially but the more I thought and prayed the more sure I was. In the bigger picture I'm just another runner who might raise a little bit of money which will bless people and take care of some needs. In my life though, this is a big journey.
Amazing things have happened since I started running and working for this goal. I saw a rheumatologist who didn't have any answers for me but she did put me on some meds that are mild and supposed to help with nerve pain. Praise God, they're working! Slowly I started running, I skipped my big mental 1 mile obstacle and went straight into 2 mile runs. I discovered an amazing thing in the process; when I run I don't think about anything, it is simple quiet time to listen to God. For the first time in my entire ADHD life my brain is quiet. If I am stressed out or in need of an attitude adjustment I find refreshing peace when I run. Who needs to be chased? I can run from myself for miles and then come back ready to face life with a better attitude.
I have seen physical provision, mental provision, and even financial provision ( I won a certificate that pays my racing fees for one of the races). When I get discouraged I think about the kids in India and everything I saw in various videos and heard from various testimonies. I complain because my body hurts but my biggest challenge is NOTHING compared to what these people (many of them are kids) face just to survive from day to day. To be able to be a part of helping to give them the luxury of a clean place to live and life sustaining medicine and food and school.... it keeps me going when I want to stop. As I conquer longer distances and figure out that it takes me about 2 miles (sometimes more) to get warmed up, I need that motivation because those first couple of miles are TOUGH!


SO.... How does this benefit the India outreaches?
sponsorship.


Would you be willing to help our cause? Would you pay even $10 to see a notorious non runner book it over 52 miles? No matter what your reason might be, your sponsorship goes a long way in helping this cause. If I have your address you can expect a letter from me in mid-late august. I will be sending out letters with little cards enclosed and postage paid return envelopes. I would rather that someone throw it away than to give for the wrong reasons (guilt, pressure, insert any negative feeling here) but if you do feel led to give it would be a huge blessing! I pay my own race fees and expenses like shoes and accessories and everything else is donated; 100% of our contributions go to India.
If I don't have your address or if you're just really excited like I am to get involved then you can click the following link to sponsor me directly online. http://www.chapelmissions.org/where-we-work/india/getting-word-out/run-4-heavens-gate/2012/kristi-young


This blog is part 1 of at least a 2 part series. I am excited to see how God will work in this journey and I can't wait to share it!


Here is the video that started it all....

My old favorite sport madeover

Who loves to shop? I mean really shop; the smell of the mall, the competition of a good sale, the thrill of the hunt... that feeling you get when you're done? It truly is a high. My favorite event of the year (minus birthdays and holidays) is the super bowl of all shopping days- Black Friday :-) We have maps, plans, coupons, ads, lists, face paint..... Ahhhhh I LOVE IT!!! I recently had a cementing experience that wasn't too unlike a training event for the biggest shopping day of the year.
I live on a meager budget and I have thought of couponning in the past and even tried it once and did very well but I simply didn't have the resources to start up and I had no clue where to start. It was an overwhelming thought altogether. I have since heard a lot of people express the same feelings toward coupons. How? When? what? SO many questions!!! I have been there.
I guess the first thing I should clear up is expectations and quantity. You will have as much as you want or can invest. I do not currently and do not plan to have a giant stockpile that contains 200 tubes of toothpaste and other similar stereo types. Some people have that but I'm not one of them so if you want to become a hoarder  of toiletries then I may not be a good resource because I have no grasp on the magnitude of of an endeavor like that. BUT if you want to learn about realistic ways to start saving money on things you already use then perhaps you could benefit from what I have learned so far.
Someone gave me a hand. I wouldn't have gotten such a good start if I didn't have some help. I actually won a shopping trip with a professional couponner. She's a sweet gal named Becky and she writes for the coupon website FabulesslyFrugal.com . She took me shopping one night as a subject for her own blog which you can read... HERE. I got to pick her brain and lean how to make connections like using rite rewards points at Rite Aid in multiple transactions. We went Easter basket shopping and I did get a little side tracked in the cleaning isle but I found some greats deals! to learn more about the multiple transactions please read Becky's blog. I haven't attempted it on my own and I can't speak reliably about it.
My second independent shopping experience was the following Tuesday in the middle of the night. I had quite a few doublers from Albertson's and they expire on Tuesdays. I went to Walmart with a mission and I found black Friday training and 60% savings. The line was crazy but it was an awesome opportunity to talk to other gals who were all there for the same reason. It gave me a chance to learn about binder organization. Becky was a huge help and the gals in line really helped me to fill in the blanks and see a variety of styles and preferences.

So where do you start?

1. Get multiple newspaper subscriptions- you won't use them all but you will be thankful when you find a good deal.
2. figure out a system - I'm going to help you

I found a deal with the Idaho Statesman where I get 1 paper everyday and an additional 4 papers on Sundays. This is actually cheaper than just buying 5 Sunday paper subscriptions. I paid $58 for this service and I have already paid for it in savings from coupons. 

About your binder.... There are so many ways to do this!!! I took the best of what I saw from about 20 samples and I made something that fits my own needs. You should do the same.
I started with a little filing notebook thing that I put my inserts in and a pair of scissors. After my first shopping trip it looked like this

Ridiculous!

I needed a better system. I had it all organised but when I had to resort to plan B, C, and D it all went out the window. 

FIRST- I found an old school binder- I will get a fancy tricked out one when the back to school sales start-

I got some page protectors from Ebay (Thanks Becky) and some dividers.

 I started with the dividers. I did one for store specific coupons and loose coupons (like you clip off the box). one for printables, and the rest organised by date (oldest first). 

I printed lists off of fabulously frugal which gives me the name, value, and expiration of the coupons from each insert. 

I decided to cut out at least 1 of each coupon because I'm not opposed to trying new things and if I find a great deal then I will be prepared. The only exception I found was cat food and menopause products. I just will not be needing those. After some trial and error I found it easiest just to lay them out in order of the list before I cut out the others from the same inserts. That way I can see which ones I want multiples of. 

Then after I was sure I had all I wanted from that batch of inserts I filed that mess and recycled the rest

My goal is to be able to look at ads and pull the coupons I want quickly and if I run into plan B, C, D, E, and F then it will be a clean process and a lot easier to find. less hassle in the store for me to cut them ahead of time. If you don't want to do the prep work then you could simply put the inserts into a sheet protector and file the list ahead of it so you know what is in each insert. I filed 3 weeks worth of inserts at 5 newspapers a week. I estimate that in the future this will probably take me an hour or less per week. 

My finished binder looks like this: 

Much better!!!

When you shop, take a list of the deals you found. You can copy and paste off of a site like Fabulously Frugal or you could write it yourself, also keep in mind things you use a lot (like dish soap). You will find yourself noticing the prices around you and remembering your coupons. This is good! set a "most price" for yourself. for example I HATE to pay more than $0.50 for deodorant and $2 for body wash. If somethings you see matches your price or less then you've scored. 

On my midnight shopping run I scored $65 worth of stuff for $22! I got 10 pack of gum for free and if I'd been anywhere besides Walmart it would have been a 4 cent money maker. Those Hot-wheels cars were 50 cents a piece. The dish soap was 97 cents. Not bad huh?

I'm still learning so much and I'm definitely not an expert but this is what I know so far. Hope it helps!