"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."
My dad, my kids’ Poppy, passed away July 8, 2009. For a home so full of preschoolers, our farmhouse now has a strange undercurrent of silence beneath the rambunctiousness. Dad needed me so much in the last two months that I now feel at a loss without him to tend. Although he had a terminal [...]
Posted on July 12th, 2009 by Dove
Filed under: ALS | No Comments »
Dad has lost a ridiculous amount of weight. Many foods make him choke, and nothing tastes right to him anymore. I try not to take it personally when I carefully cook a delicious meal and he pushes it away. I know it’s not me, and I know he’s not wanting to hurt my feelings. We [...]
Posted on June 23rd, 2009 by Dove
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My tears too began to fall as I put my arm around my dad’s shaking, shrunken shoulders. “I just… I just….” he wept, his gray head hanging. Occasionally he looked up and out the window to the bright inviting day outside. The tall summer grass was laying over in the breeze, the flowers on the [...]
Posted on June 16th, 2009 by Dove
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I am in such a strange phase of my life. A paradoxical juxtaposition, I would label it “Hospice Preschool.” My days are filled with appeasing picky appetites, wiping bottoms, cleaning spills, and dressing bodies. On the one hand, I am training and teaching my children and I look ahead to their futures many years hence, [...]
Posted on June 6th, 2009 by Dove
Filed under: ALS, Learning | No Comments »
“And so then I got a call from him saying we don’t have to worry about money no more and I said, ‘That’s good. One less thing.’” –Forrest Gump, upon learning he was wealthy Sometimes money seems like such a stupid thing to pray for. Money doesn’t fix broken relationships (like mine with my mom) [...]
Posted on January 22nd, 2008 by Dove
Filed under: ALS | 1 Comment »
One of the constraints of writing on the internet is that I can’t take for granted the things you would already know about me if we were friends already. My words can be misconstrued, and I’d never know it if you didn’t comment about it. So if anything in my posts sounds grossly wrong or [...]
Posted on January 7th, 2008 by Dove
Filed under: ALS, Fostering/Adoption, Kids | 1 Comment »
Right now, my dad’s insurance company is investigating his claim for long-term disability income. He should qualify easily, but of course because it is a large amount of money, they are doing everything in their power to deny it. This claim amounts to about $36,000 a year, which will make a huge difference in how [...]
Posted on January 3rd, 2008 by Dove
Filed under: ALS | 2 Comments »
Well, we’re back online after a two month break, and boy, a full two months it has been. We moved out to to the country to live with my dad. We are adjusting to country-speed internet access, which is partly to blame for our long break. We really enjoy the space and the house and [...]
Posted on December 27th, 2007 by Dove
Filed under: ALS, Fostering/Adoption, Kids | 3 Comments »
And walkin’s what we’ll do! This Saturday E, the kids, my dad and I will be walking (or riding in a wagon, stroller or chair) for my dad and others diagnosed with Amyotropic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). It’s the annual Walk to D’Feet ALS! Our team goal is to raise money to support ALS research as [...]
Posted on October 11th, 2007 by Dove
Filed under: ALS | No Comments »
Still trying to define the purpose of my blogging, and I think I’ve hit upon the reason why two blogs are necessary for me. Ranting. I have a second blog, a family blog in which I can post pictures and use my children’s real names and go on and on and on and on and [...]
Posted on September 19th, 2007 by Dove
Filed under: ALS, Kids, Rants | No Comments »