An Old Farmhouse and The Truth About The Real Christmas

Picture this.

A house appears on a farm, with its 100-year-old frame, to its current location in a farm field. The painted white house has a front porch and traditional architecture. 

The yard around it reflects simple maintenance, yet the paint is peeling from the banisters of the porch. As you reach the front door and turn the knob, it appears weak with age, and the screen door is off its hinges.

As you walk into the house, you notice that the ceilings are 14 feet in the entryway, however, the plaster from the walls exhibits gaping cracks as if the very foundation of the house is disturbed. The living room has a gas fireplace, and so does the dining room. 

There are more cracks in the walls, and, large pieces of missing sheetrock expose the original walls. As you peek under the boards, you see that there are beams of cedar, originally covered with muslin and then wallpaper, which have deteriorated with age.

As you wander around the perimeter outside, you notice a trap window at the base of the porch. When the door opens, it reflects a small space with a dirt floor. Another window opens up to a set of stairs leading down into the cellar. 

Yet, another stairway, leading up to the house floor from the ground, reflects the mystery of the room because there is no entryway into the home. The room also has a small workspace of shelves, filled with almost 100 empty jars as if a canning project is left undone.

When you return to the front yard, a church building catches your eye. You observe that it is made of hewn rock and the grounds are simple but well kept, however, it is completely deserted. As you walk through the front gate and turn to shut it, the house reflects the sunlight and shows the character and beauty of its age.

The house is rustic and yet, it is solid. It provides shelter and comfort.  Further, its walls contain many years of lives lived and memories for those who lived there. 

How are we like this house at Christmas time?

As we go through the Christmas season, it is easy in American culture to cover up the veneer of the holiday. We may try to cover up our pain and hang lights, set up a Christmas tree, or shop at the malls. 

We might buy expensive presents and over-extend our financial means to create a romantic illusion that we wish was true. We may even try to reconcile with a family member who will never forgive us.

For many people, this is the reality. We may experience deep depression and sadness, but cover it up with a veneer of holiday cheer.

Sure, we hope and pray for the peace that comes with reconciliation. Or, we even yearn for the return of family members who have since passed on.

But, the shininess of Christmas pains us greatly. 

The light of Jesus shines hope

However, when we come to the Christmas story, we see the light. A child, a king, is born in a cave, made into an animal stall. It is devoid of privacy but provides shelter for the arrival of Jesus and his parents. 

His bed is a manger; his attendants are the cattle, sheep, and donkey. However, it provides the needed foundation for a few days.

Joseph and Mary find themselves receiving strangers who bring gifts to their son---the true Son of God. Then, the Lord gives Joseph a dream and awakens him to leave in the middle of the night to avoid the wrath of King Herod’s armies. 

There is no veneer in that story. It rings of extreme poverty and hopelessness. At least, from the circumstances. 

Yet, the true seed of hope was a little baby born in a manger who was the King of All. He was and is the Messiah for all mankind.

This is true hope without any veneer.

Grab ahold of real hope

It is not the duties we carry out for Christmas, like decorating, shopping, or baking that bring us closer to Him and each other, but in barely laying ourselves before Him that allows us to shine His light. 

Even when all is dark around us and we barely limp through a joyous time for everyone else, God is and always will be the hope we can cling to.

Jesus was born and died on the cross to bring us eternal hope that gives us the Holy Spirit as our guarantee.

He is the only One we can turn to, who will not let us down. He may not be shiny like a Christmas tree, but He is the Hope of All.  

“And she gave birth to her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn.” Luke 2:7

In His grip~Kim

Originally published 12/12/2010

The Insects Come to Visit My Sons for an Impromptu Homeschool Lesson

I was convinced that my oldest son was going to be a herpetologist... He was the lizard, crocodile, and snake boy for years. He could (and still can) list any species of snake and crocodile around the world by the time he was 9. I am still in awe at how he remembers all of those details. 

Ah, but time will tell.

Steve Irwin has played a huge role in his fascination with the reptile world.

After this summer's display of bugs, my special needs son's interest is shining through in bugs. 

He is fascinated with every kind of bug there is, stooping down to look at them, sometimes killing them, and then picking them up while asking questions; he has a lot to choose from this year. 

Can you tell that our summer has been lazy and slow?

I should have known it was coming when one day in late spring we went to Wal-Mart to fill a prescription, and the sound of cricket songs filled the air IN THE STORE. Apparently, they were seeking mates, but you could literally see them dead and alive all over the store floor. It was as if the cleaning crew left for the day because there were too many to clean. I have never seen anything like it.

The whole event turned into an unplanned homeschool lesson!  

And, in the middle of August.

In July, the grasshoppers came out in droves. I cannot say how many different species of grasshoppers I have seen around our yard alone, but there are probably 10 or more. 

When we walk across the grass, they shoot out in every direction, and no, my garden did not grow a thing. They can be very destructive in numbers like this.  

Plus, we had plenty of garden spiders with their amazing webs. Just yesterday morning, we witnessed a huge butterfly being wrapped and devoured by one large yellow and black Argiope. 

I ran out to take pictures with my phone, but they aren't very clear. 

According to the Texas A & M, AgriLife Extension, the female garden spiders are larger than the males, so the one above is obviously a female. Also interestingly enough, when the male spider is courting a female, he comes and makes a zig-zag line (also known as stabilimenta) across her web. 

The male spider then attempts to get the female's attention, after making his writing, by plucking and vibrating her web. The end result is a few 300 to 1,400 eggs encased in a hanging cocoon. We (particularly my son:) are waiting for the hatching of the 3 egg cocoons hanging on our front porch.

My kids have already had their first lesson

We are finding exciting scientific events right through our front window because learning does not always happen exactly the way we plan for it too. We are understanding the different species of crickets, grasshoppers, and garden spiders, as well as population control. 

While we aren't in session for formal school yet, there is always active learning going on around here, even with my special needs son.:) Sometimes you just have to discover it...God's way.

"It is He who made the Earth by His power, who established the world by His wisdom and by His understanding stretched out the heavens.  When He utters His voice there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and He makes the mist rise from the ends of the Earth.  He makes the lightning for the rain, and He brings out the wind from His storehouses."  Jeremiah 51:15-16

In His grip~Kim

Originally published on 8/19/2010

How the Holy Spirit Helped me Heal my Son's Hormonal Imbalance

I read a news article yesterday morning, Hormones: The Balance of a Healthy Body. The article is about how the imbalance of hormones can affect one's overall health. A recent shift in medicine is to test an overweight patient's hormone levels, and then balance them out. 

This imbalance is usually caused by diet, lifestyle choices, smoking, and/or stress. It is the beginning step to changing how you take care of your body and becoming healthier.

The hormones referred to in Lorie Johnson's article, are hormones like insulin, thyroid, estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. Correcting such problems does not necessarily begin by removing foods with gluten or cow's milk, but instead sugars, refined flour, trans fats, and salt. 

Too much sugar and refined flour can create low blood sugar issues.   Too much salt can create an underactive thyroid. 

This made me think about my son's genetic condition  

My special needs son has a genetic condition called Prader-Willi Syndrome. Many kids within the Prader-Willi Syndrome community experience similar responses to foods that our children are allergic to. It creates an imbalance of sorts.

Further, the wrong types of foods, such as cow's milk and wheat may leave their bodies feeling deprived of the nutritional substance. Plus, it leaves them feeling foggy, cranky, and tired. 

I have seen sudden drops in blood sugar levels in my special needs son, in particular, and I have felt them myself with certain gluten grains. As confirmed by my son's gastroenterologist, gut allergies do affect our metabolisms, which, as described above, also affect our hormones.

So, while plenty of naysayers told me there was nothing I could do to help stabilize my son's mood, this solution came to me by way of the Holy Spirit. And, actually, it helped his mood quite a bit. 

This pushed me to really change my son's diet

Our PWS children's bodies do not effectively regulate their hormones, including growth hormone, thyroid, sex hormones, and more.  It took me nearly 5 years to figure out how diet is related to this in my PWS son, who it turned out, had a pretty severe peanut allergy, along with several other foods. 

This did not originally come out in a food allergy blood test, but later came out in the form of diarrhea, and other behavioral symptoms when his blood sugar dropped too low. It was within 3 months of removing him from peanuts and other allergens that he was able to get off all the remaining 5 medications. 

I prayed for my son's healing, and this was the Lord's first answer (see this post from last year).

When I began to change his diet, I started with gluten and cow's milk, which dropped 3 medications. 

Then, when the pulmonologist, impressed with his strong improvement,  dropped his Singulair, I accidentally discovered my son's peanut allergy, which led me to remove all other nuts except almonds from his diet. 

Once I removed these, I easily identified his intolerance to grapes, raisins, shellfish, and rice as well; it truly was a miracle.

Even now, we do well on a low carbohydrate diet with plenty of fresh vegetables and meats and fruits in moderation. We do not typically eat processed foods or sugar. We use agave syrup as a sweetener, teff flour, and coconut flour to bake with. 

We drink goat's milk, lots of water, or watered down, naturally sweetened, juice. We eat plenty of lean cut meats.  This diet has kept my son healthier than he has ever been.

It truly was a Holy Spirit thing. 

One thing led to another, and it brought a life-changing event for our family. 

Are we at the end of our miracle road? Well, no. I am sure there are plenty more on the horizon. 

But, just this even alone gives me hope. 

What about your kid? How can you find healing for your child? Is the Spirit leading you in your quest to find answers?

Seek them and you will find them. 

God will make a way and show or tell you what you need to do to set things right.

In His grip~Kim

  
Originally published on 7/29/2010