When you become a parent of a child with special needs, you join a “club” that no one wants to be a part of.  The other part of the “club” is that even though you can be surrounded by people, you can still feel extremely isolated.

That’s how I have been feeling since diagnosis.  Even though I have connected with several DMD moms, and we have our church family, and we have our family, I have felt the weight of loneliness bearing down on me.  While people can be sympathetic to our situation, no one exactly knows our worries.

But beginning in January, God began to open my eyes to pull me out of my loneliness.  We first experienced a community event at the movie theater where we were reminded of our blessing of living in a supportive community.  It has been a truly humbling experience.

I love that when we look back on this picture, Cade says “Mom I couldn’t even fit everyone in the picture!”

Then we started our fundraising efforts to have our church become handicap accessible.  We are having a Pasta & Pie fundraiser dinner along with silent auction and bake sale.  Every time I think I can’t be surprised by people’s generosity, something else becomes listed on our silent auction.

Now enter my shameless plug for this event!  You can go to the Banner Methodist Church Fundraising Facebook page and bid on any of the items there.  Don’t live in town.  No worries!  We will work out a delivery method.  I am really praying that a huge chunk of the funding for the lift will be raised through this one event!  We will even have gluten free pasta for anyone that may avoid coming for that reason.

The community and our members of our church have once again reminded me that we are not alone in this journey.  I cry happy tears almost everyday when I receive a donation.  We have been extremely blessed with our efforts.

Then this morning, I opened my devotional and it was like the entire thing was wrote for me.  I LOVE when God works like this!  The lesson was on 2 Kings 6.  The highlighted verse was 2 Kings 6:16.  It states:  “‘Don’t be afraid,’ the prophet answered.  ‘Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.'”

God did not change the circumstances in this passage, but rather opened the eyes of the servant who then could fully see the support they had.  God has not changed our circumstances with Cade’s diagnosis.  However, he has been opening my eyes to see who is with us in this journey.

I use the First 5 devotional app from Proverbs 31 ministries for anyone who may be curious.  I LOVE it!!!  So today this is my prayer:  “Open my eyes so that I can see that those who are with us are greater than those who are against us.”

Blessings.  Lynnette