Several years ago when we bought our Ford Taurus, we intentionally bought a bigger car. Even though we only had Philip at that time, we knew that we may need the space for several car seats before we would be able to save up money for a larger vehicle. It worked fine for a few years, but as we added Joyanna and Ethan to our family, having the 3 car seats in the back was getting to be more of a challenge. Last year, as we continually saw Philip going downhill, we began realizing that we would probably be physically picking him up and putting him in the car for a good while, almost “dead weight” at times; and we began to realize that, though it was working with the car, we needed to pray about a van. Practically, because it would become more difficult physically for Becca and I to avoid hurting our backs lifting Philip sideways into a low vehicle, but also because he would need a wheelchair at some point and there wasn’t space in the car trunk for a wheelchair.
A van was becoming a need, but God already had plans for that. It had not crossed our minds that we may be receiving some inheritance money from my grandmother, who had passed away earlier in the year. But, the amount we received was sufficient to buy a van. Numerous times since we have gotten the van we have realized what a blessing and help it has been. For example, at Christmas-time when we traveled to KY, Becca climbed multiple times from the front seat to the back of the van to take care of Philip, who threw up a lot that night while we traveled. It would have been an impossible trip, without the extra space in the back of the van for Becca to help him and keep him from choking. Earlier this year, Philip had to get a specially adapted car seat for special needs children, it wouldn’t have fit in the Taurus if we had tried. He also got an adaptive stroller that wouldn’t fit in a car’s trunk. God knew all these things before they happened.
Our heat/air unit in our house has been going out for a while now (6 years ago the repairman told me we needed a new unit). For several reasons we needed to put in an entirely new system, rather than just replace the unit itself. That included new duct-work, adding duct-work to a room in the house that had no heat/air vents, moving the location of the unit, etc. One estimate I got from a reputable company estimated the total cost at nearly $11,000. That’s a lot of money! However, through a pastor who was willing to be a blessing to us, through a grant from the Isaiah Stone Foundation, and through a rebate from our Oklahoma natural gas company we were able to have the system replaced this week with a cost to us of only around $1800. A main reason we are changing the system completely is to make room to expand our bathroom in the next year or two to be more handicap friendly. As Philip gets bigger, bath time is only going to be more challenging. Only God can work some of these types of situations out! It is certainly going to be a blessing and help to us not to deal with the heat or air system breaking down a couple times a year.
While talking about blessings, I have heard Bro. Dave Hardy on several occasions make the statement “When it comes to friends, I am the richest man in the world,” I want to borrow that thought from him. As we have gone through the last 5 years with Philip and the last few weeks with concerns about Joyanna, I can’t help but reflect on the friends that God has given us. I would almost want to challenge Bro. Hardy and say that we are “richer” than him:
The parents and families God has given Becca and I
The church that we attend, and the love and encouragement that has been showed us from the people there
Working at Heartland and the attitude, flexibility, encouragement, and help from the staff and students
The doctors
The therapists
The school teachers
All those that have helped with babysitting for the many doctors’ appointments, as well as other times that have allowed Becca and I to get away for a little bit
Those that have stopped and interacted with Philip and given him high-fives whether he has been happy or sad, smiling or grumpy, interactive or mostly unresponsive
Those that have helped us financially, emotionally, physically, spiritually, and those who have encouraged us in both the bad times and in the good times (even during the good times, there is usually something going on under the surface, whether we have said something about it or not)
Those that have sent us texts, cards, emails, etc.
The people, that we don't even know, that are praying for our family in churches around the country.
It seems to us that God has given us a lot of things materially, and make no mistake, those things have helped to make our lives easier and taken a lot of the concerns and stresses of “normal” life off of us while we deal with the concerns and stresses of an “abnormal” life. However, when we look at our lives, the 'thing' of perhaps the greatest value that God has given us is the friends and family He has brought into our lives.