Life and Love at my Level

   Mori joined our family on June 15, 2022; he weighed in at 2.2 pounds at 8 weeks old. He is just over 14 weeks now and weighs about 4 pounds. I have NEVER  owned an actual puppy this young; my last Yorkie was just a few weeks shy of 1 years old when I got him, so he was out of the puppy stage. Buddy was very playful and full of energy, but he was fully trained, didn't chew and was fairly self sufficient in terms of eating and drinking. Mori came as a baby; he loves to chew; he actively searches out his trouble, and he will eat if the taste is suitable to his pallet. As a result, the floor is usually strewn with garbage because for some reason Mori believes garbage cans are just waiting for him to explore the contents. Also, his pen usually has dry dog food all over because apparently Mori feels that dry dog food doesn't belong in his dish. He wants wet dog food sprinkled with bits of human food. If we just give him wet dog food, he turns up his nose and walks away from ...

My husband, Chris, and I are currently attending a book study at our church.  We are studying The Power of a Praying Church ; the book looks at the importance of prayer and the impact of prayer on one's life.  Prayer has always been a major component in my life, and I have been lifted up in prayer by others countless times. I can safely say that prayer is one of the reasons why I am alive and well today. But this book has made me reflect on how my prayers have changed throughout my life.  When I was young, I remember praying for the ability to walk. It was not that I was unhappy with my life, but I think I wanted to run and play like my friends. Of course, I had my first set of electric wheels at 6, and these wheels gave me mobility and freedom. But it was still not the same as two working legs; I could not jump rope with wheels; I could not climb stairs with wheels; I could not play hopscotch with wheels.  However, my school friends adored my wheels and loved gettin...

 As strange as this may sound, I have always loved being in the kitchen. Most people find this statement  to be strange for me because I don't actually eat anything I make. When I was 24, I lost my abilities to chew and swallow food; well, I didn't fully lose these abilities, but it took so much effort and energy to eat that my body was burning calories faster than I was consuming. At 24, I was rocking the scale at 32 pounds.  The doctor said that I had two options: feeding tube or  death by starvation. I had been fighting the idea of a feeding tube ever since I was young; I had once heard a story of a young boy who had my same condition, and he went in for the routine procedure of inserting a feeding tube. However, the young boy never survived the surgery. From that point on, I was dead set AGAINST getting a feeding tube, but now I was facing starvation or surgery and a chance at survival. I agreed to the surgery on the condition of no general anesthesia.  I re...

I have taken a long hiatus from writing.  When I lost my ability to speak, I lost my zest for the written and spoken word.  I struggled with God on why he allowed my verbal speech to be taken from me as it was with my speech that I was teaching others to write. After 4 plus years, I still don't fully understand God's answer, but I do know that he has provided me the acceptance to move on with life. Moving on has definitely been a big part of my life the last 7 months; however, I feel that it is time to unleash my words once again through writing.  I struggle physically with the my ability to speak. It is not because I am shy.  It is not because I have a stutter, but my body has further relinquished my abilities to my disability. I am very accustomed to loss because over 41 years I have slowly watched my body lose abilities but then find ways to adapt. My inability to verbalize has been one of the greatest and most debilitating losses. At the outset, I was angry and d...