Monday, March 23, 2015

Lisa Qualls, Cynthia Jueb, Kara Tippetts, and Wretched RAD!

I have been reading blogs and watching you tube videos during my time off of Facebook.  I am excited to share some of them with you.

 One Thankful Mom is a blog I have frequented for a while.  Lisa is an excellent writer.  She is an adoptive mom.  She is a trauma mama.  She is a homeschool mom who now sends at least some of her kids to public school. I have been going back and reading all of her trauma posts. Lisa lost her sweet daughter "Dimples" in a car accident around Christmas.  Her daughter, who dealt with deep trauma stuff, was finally making some healing progress and is now gone.  My heart aches for this family.  It is such a strange feeling to read her blog.  It is so beautiful to read about her grief.  It is lovely to see how much this girl is missed, even with her trauma.  Some people don't know how we trauma mamas do it, but the simplest answer is that we LOVE our kids and our love compels us to fight against trauma WITH THEM! Lisa models this so well.  I learn so much from reading her blog.

I have also been reading Cynthia Jeub's blog lately.  I remembered watching her on Kids by the Dozen several years ago.  Seeing the rest of the story of what really was going on when the cameras were not rolling opened my eyes to a world that I didn't want to see and also could not turn away from.  There is deep emotional, physical, and spiritual abuse going on in "Christian" homes and among "godly homeschooling families."  It is so important as Christians to learn about these issues and to watch for them around us.  My heart breaks for the children involved.  Our family works hard to parent in a way that builds connection and attachment, not in a way that isolates or increases fear.  Many of you know that story of sweet Hana Williams who lost her life in the hands of her adoptive mom who physically abused her to death while fully believing she was doing the right thing, following the teachings of a "Christian" parenting book. Cynthia's posts often appear in  Homeschooler Anonymous which is a website I would encourage everyone to check out.  The beautiful things about this blog is that while it does expose deep abuse and trauma in some homeschool families, other entries praise the individualized education that the person received while being homeschooled. Some of the posters will/are homeschooling their children.  I say this to tell you that it is not just a website that bashes this form of education.  Anyway, take some time and check it out.


 Mundane Faithfulness is rocking the internet right now.  Kara Tippetts is pointing thousands to kindness and loving big and pondering heaven as she allows us to walk with her through her final days on earth.  Kara is living with and dying with cancer.  She is the mom of four small children and the wife of a church planting pastor. She loves so beautifully.  Her heart for the Gospel and for our World and for family are so aligned with Brandon and I and with our church.  I watched THIS youtube video of her speaking and was blown away by what she shared at a Multiply Conference not long ago.  The video is 39 minutes long, but it will leave you feeling excited to embrace your story which is really His story. *Update* I wrote this post on Saturday night.  It will post on Monday night.   Kara is now with Jesus.  She died yesterday March 22nd.

Lastly, I recently watched the WRETCHED RAD video that was circulating among adoptive parents. If you click on the link you will notice that it isn't the actual link of the video.  This video (23 minutes long) has some wonderful parts to it, parts that I think are worth sharing.  It also has some parts that I don't like.  I am sharing a link to the video through an Adoption and Trauma Network post because I feel like the post does a good job talking about the highs and lows of the video.  I appreciate much of the talking points he shared.  I had a HUGE Aha moment when he talked about our kids creating chaos in our lives so they can feel in control.  Since watching the video I have been naming emotions with M and I will often let him know when he is trying to gain control by causing chaos in my life.  I am then able to remind him that mommy is in charge and he doesn't need to be.  He is my safe and loved son.  So I am sharing this video, for better or worse, because I did learn from it and I do believe that others can too.

No comments: