Anne & The Swedish Chef

The whole family gathered together after dinner to watch a movie. It’s the first time in a long time that Anne joined us. She did pretty well… she was still, she paid attention, she could follow along with the story, and she was mostly quiet. That’s pretty good for a little girl who has almost zero self control!

But about 1/2 hour into the movie, Anne blurted out…

You know what I really want? A tv that shows the Swedish Chef all the time!

Ha!! We all laughed so hard. Remember the Swedish Chef from the Muppets?? The funniest thing about Anne’s fascination with the Swedish Chef is that she doesn’t realize he’s supposed to be funny. She tells me often… “Wow Mom! You are such a good cook that you could be on the Swedish Chef!” That’s quite the compliment coming from Anne ;-)

Anne’s favorite Swedish Chef Video

Pray for Anne…

February 2013’s prayer requests:

Please pray for Anne…

  1. Her seizures have come back in full force. Please pray for adjustments in her medication to eradicate her seizures.
  2. Anne recently had a procedure to decrease the spasticity (tightness) in her left leg and arm. Please pray that this procedure would pay great dividends and allow Anne to gain more movement and strength in her left limbs.
  3. For self control and a Spirit-empowered hunger and thirst to do what is best and right, and
  4. Finally, pray for God to show us his great, great love and goodness to Anne.

Thank you!

All things new

Eric was reading to Anne from the “The Jesus Storybook Bible” again. Tonight’s story was from Revelation and it described heaven…

Anne got real excited and said, “When I go to heaven I want to be a doctor because if anybody that’s sick goes to heaven, when they get there, I’ll make them well again. I will take their temperature and tell them that they’re okay and that will make them soooooo happy.”

And then she changed her mind… “No, I want to be a teacher in heaven.”

But then she said something profound… “But Daddy, what I really want to be when I get to heaven is… ‘me.’ I want to be the ‘old Anne’ when I get to heaven. Daddy, will I get to be the ‘old Anne’ when I get to heaven?”

Wow. What would you say? This is an interesting question. One that I’ve thought about often. Yes, Anne will have a new body in heaven, but her spirit – or soul – will have the effects of having to live with a disability on this earth. Her character will be refined and strengthened from the hardship of having a brain injury. She will be beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.

But I wasn’t with Anne when she asked this question… Eric was. And I think his answer was perfect. Eric said,

No, you won’t be the “old Anne” in heaven. God makes all things new. You will be made new!

I like that. Don’t you?

Update on Bible:365

Well, I’m over half-way through my first month of reading through the bible in a year… AND blogging about it. I said before that consistency is a huge obstacle for me, but I’ve managed to post everyday so far :-)

I think today’s post is one of my favorites… I love the way the Old and New Testament readings happen to connect today.

So… 17 days down, only 348 to go ;-)

What God has prepared…

Today, as Kate and I picked up Anne from school, Kate listened to Anne’s teacher give a good report on Anne’s day. Kate said,
Great job, Anne!!! …even with your brain injury!” Kate was sincerely proud of Anne – but Anne responded as she always does – truthfully with no filters…

I hate that brain injury… That stupid brain injury. I just want it to go away!
-Anne

Anne has not lost her sass! Her spunk made me laugh :) I feel the same way as Anne. And you know what… I think God agrees and can’t wait for us to see Anne made whole in heaven!

“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor the heart of man imagined,
what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9).

Anne is amazing :)

Sometimes I look at Anne and I’m struck by the magnitude of the brain damage. She’s just so impaired in so many ways. But then other times, Anne amazes us…

Yesterday, Anne stood up from her chair at the dinner table all by herself. That was amazing. Then I put her on the sofa and asked her to stand up, and she did it! The whole family was amazed!!

Anne said this morning… “I want a dog. And I think we should name her “Grace” because I bring Grace to other people and my name means “Grace.” That was pretty amazing.

But what she did last night was really amazing…When Eric puts Anne to bed, he always reads to her from the children’s bible, “The Jesus Storybook Bible.” In fact, Eric reads the same bible to Canon and Kate when he puts them to bed. And at times, Anne is able to connect to the stories on a deeper level than Canon and Kate.

Eric was reading a story (that he had never read to Anne) from the New Testament about the field of great price. Remember the story? A man learns that there is treasure in a field, so he sells everything he owns in order to pay the price for the field. In the middle of the story, there was a question: “What is God’s Treasure?” Anne immediately piped up, and said, “God’s children.” Eric, amazed, continued to read the next line of the story…”God’s children are God’s treasure.” And then Anne offered, “The price God paid for his treasure was his Son’s life.”

God seems to have given Anne a special ability to understand his Word. We think that’s… amazing!

Bedtime Prayers

Eric puts Anne to bed every night, and each night he prays the same prayer…

God, please give Anne self control, please be in her heart and please help her to be helpful.

And each night Anne prays too. Her prayers are typically silly, off-topic comments mixed with serious, profound requests. But tonight, she prayed…

God, please give me self control, please be in my heart and please help me to be helpful.

So sweet. And so essential. We know Anne needs God’s spirit to give her self control. We know Anne needs God’s spirit to live in her. We know that Anne needs God’s spirit to help her do the right thing. It’s just another example of how Anne is not so different than you and me :-)

Continued healing!

Anne is doing something amazing! She is starting to crawl.

I sound like a first-time mom talking about her 7 month old :-)

Seriously, last summer, when Anne was in Therasuit therapy, one of the exercises they did with Anne was to get her on all fours on the treadmill and physically move her hands and knees in a crawling position. Not only could she TOTALLY NOT do that movement on her own, but she screamed the entire time, seriously, she screamed.

Now, she can transition from side sit up to all fours (or I should say three’s – because her left arm cannot straighten all the way to the floor) and she can move her knees… right, left and then she falls. But she’s doing it!

I’m continually amazed at the complexity of the brain and how just how much damage Anne sustained. A healthy brain controls the muscles necessary for crawling without the person even “thinking” about it. It’s taken Anne over two years of healing to regain the (limited) use of some of those muscles. But the healing is still happening. And it’s exciting :-)

bible365blog.com

Now that you’ve had a taste of this crazy idea of mine of “My Year Through the Bible”… It’s time to announce that I am launching a new blog solely dedicated to this endeavor.

I will continue to update kathrynJackson.com regularly with updates on Anne and our family.

So now I have two blogs – with two different e-mail distribution lists!

  1. kathrynJackson.com is my current blog which chronicles my personal journey as a mother to a disabled child. I also share updates of her progress, specific prayer requests and other stories from our family life.
  2. bible365blog.com is my second blog dedicated solely to my daily bible readings. There is a permanent link to this blog in the left-side navigation of this site. If you want to join my journey of reading through the bible this year, feel free to go to this new blog and click the “follow” button on the right of the site to be notified by email whenever there is a new post.

I hope that wasn’t too confusing :-) Blessings for a new year! -kathryn

My Year Through the Bible: Day 3

Genesis 6-8; Matthew 3

Genesis 6-8 is the story of the flood. I actually taught a bible study on this not too long ago. The idea of God destroying the earth caused me to wrestle… really wrestle. I struggled to see how God’s goodness was revealed in destroying every living thing on the earth (except those few on the ark). Seriously, what good was the flood?

I believe God patiently endured my questioning and gave me not just one, but several glimpses of his goodness in this passage of Scripture.

  • Firstly, I believe God gave the world the opportunity to repent and be saved. Remember, I’m no bible scholar, but think about it… It took Noah and his sons a VERY long time to build that ark. Scholars debate on the specifics, but it was somewhere between 75-100 years of building. Don’t you think news would have spread about this crazy guy building this humongous boat? Don’t you think Noah tried to warn people of the coming flood? They had a chance to repent, believe and be saved… But they didn’t. And they perished.
  • Secondly, (and this is a hard one for me) every living thing deserved to be destroyed. The bible says “every intention of the thoughts of [man’s] heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5). God showed his grace by preserving a remnant.
  •  Thirdly, (and I love this) I see God’s tender, personal care for Noah and his family in verse 7:16, “And the Lord shut him in.” God, himself, shut the door to the arc and protected them from the deadly flood. He, personally, saved them.
  • And finally, Noah’s story is both a warning and a joyful proclamation to us. Just as those who were in the ark were saved from the flood… If we are found “in Christ” we will be saved from the judgment that is to come. God, in his mercy, warns over and over that there will be judgment for those who do not turn to Jesus for help. None of us are good enough to earn entrance into heaven. Jesus offers us a trade: we get his perfect record, and he gets our tarnished one. As a result, he received the punishment we deserve, and we get the reward that only he deserves. That’s good news. That’s the gospel.

P.S. You can follow the rest of my journey through the bible at bible365blog.com