"Wrestling with an Angel" The Book

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Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Now to Him Who is Able...




It has been nearly three years since Jake left for the Potomac center in Romney, WV. Three years of driving the 10-hour round trip to visit. Three years of bathroom training, behavior modification, building independent living skills and learning to live in a community.

The Potomac Center has been Jake’s University of Disability.

For the past year we have been diligently, almost desperately, searching for a permanent residency for our son as he entered adulthood and began to approach “graduation”, also known as the age cut -off from the adolescent Potomac Center.

We were prepared move our family wherever we needed to move in order for Jake to have a suitable, permanent, care facility to call home. We considered our neighboring states of Kentucky and Ohio as well as western states like Colorado and Oregon. “No more long distance traveling. No more separation,” we agreed. We needed to have our son close enough to be active in his daily life. He needs us. More importantly, we need him.

Once again we were faced with the dilemma of change and the danger of upsetting the one thing that Jake thrived on—routine.  And once again, God exceeded our expectations in a lavish display of love and mercy for our family.

Jake comes home tomorrow.

I need to say that again just for personal clarification as well as a resounding testimony to God’s goodness and greatness.

Jake comes home tomorrow!

The Lord did not see fit to provide a home for our son in Oregon or Colorado, as beautiful as those states are and as willing as we were to move there. Neither did he provide a place for Jake in Kentucky or Ohio.

Instead, Jake will be moving into a house with seven other young men, seven miles from our home.  With one breath of grace, God turned ten hours into ten minutes. Can I say it again?

“God is good.”

This means we can see Jake when we want, as long as we want, and as often as we want. Our entire extended family can be involved in his life. He can be with us on holidays and birthdays and every day days. 

Yet he will still be learning essential life skills as he lives in a community of young men with disabilities similar to his own in a home where he can live and receive care for the rest of his life.  If I could dream of a final chapter to “Wrestling with an Angel” (with the exception of the future resurrection of my son's disabled body and mind) I couldn’t dream it as perfect as this.

We know there are still great challenges ahead, namely tomorrow as Jake travels the five-hour trip and adjusts to a new environment, new faces and new routines—a nightmare experience for those suffering from Autism and PDD. He will regress. He will withdraw. He will experience anxiety. But he will be with us, and we will walk through this transition with our son.

So I write today to give credit, honor and glory to our heavenly Father, the Father of mercy and the God of all comfort—the God of Jacob. Our God is in the heavens and He does whatever He pleases. This week He was pleased to bring our son home. We are forever thankful.

I also write today to give encouragement to parents of these special children. I know your anxiety for the future. Let me reassure you, God loves you and your disabled child more than you could ever fathom. He has a plan, the plan is perfect and the plan will come to pass. It may not be what we expect, but it will always be better than what we could ever imagine.

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power…”

Amen!

11 comments:

  1. Ahh, Ephesians 3:20, a scripture I cling to in the most challenging of days. Anxiety and the future meets promise and provision. Thank for your encouragement and testimony of God's goodness in your life.
    Whitney

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  2. Thank you for taking us on the journey. For the reminder. This was a timely message. Just posted in FB! " hearing and vision screens sent to child find." these are baby stept in getting services for our adopted daughter. Baby steps leading up to a big step. I'm so thankful God saw fit to work things out so perfectly for you and your son. God is faithful. He is good.

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  3. Praise the God of mercy! So happy for you all, my brother!!! So very happy!!

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  4. Typing through my tears... Amen!!!
    Love you guys!

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  5. Oh Greg! We are so thrilled for you ALL! Anthony just sent me this. What an incredible blessing!!! How fun to see God show off! Just so wonderful!

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  6. That is so wonderful to read.......so , so good...wishing you all the best with the transition and move...it can only be good outcome...so happy for your family.

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  7. Amazing grace!! I don't know if I've ever commented, but I have been reading your blog off and on for quite a while. Praise the Lord! So excited with you!

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  8. Praising God with you. Your faithfulness to your son is a blessing to read about, but I'm so glad those long trips are over! May God smooth the path and make the transition go better than expected.

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  9. Brilliant True Story Angel Encounters Today! BOOKS:-(1)‘Angels’By Hope Price. (2)’Angels’By Billy Graham. (3)’Where Miracles Happen’ By Joan W. Anderson.(4)‘Where Angels Walk’ By J.Anderson.(5)’Angels & Devils’ By J.Cruz.(6)’Angels(& Demons)’ By P.J.Kreeft. (7)'Angels Among Us'By Ron Rhodes. (8)‘Angels &Their Mission’By J.Danielou.(9)’The Angels:The Catholic Teaching’By Fr.P.Parente.(10)‘Angels’By J.Woolmer.(11)‘Angels:Elect &Evil,Revised’ By C.F. Dickason. (12)’Seeing Angels’By E.HeathcoteJames.(13)’God Stories:Inspiring Encounters’By J. Skiff-CNN.(14)’Guardian Angels’ BY J.Anderson.(15) ’A Study of Angels’By Dr.E.Myers.(16)’Extraordinary Miracles in the Lives of Ordinary People’ByTherese Marszalek.(17)’Miracles Still Happen’By S.Stone. (18)’Christian Miracles’By J.S.Bell.(19)’When Heaven Invades Earth’By B.Johnson.(20)’Seeing the Unseen’By J.Beam.(21)’Angels on Assignment’By B.Roland. (22)’Angels:Who They Are & How They Help’By Dr. D.Jeremiah. (23)’Angels On Assignment’By P.Stone. (24)’Psalm 91:Real-Life Stories of God's Shield’By P.Ruth.(25)’Saved By Angels’By B.V.Natta.(26)‘90 Minutes in Heaven’By D.Piper.(27)’A Message From God’By A.McPherson.(28)’The Boy who came back from Heaven’By K.Malarke.(29)‘Heaven is for Real’By T.Burpo.(30)’Visions Beyond The Veil’By H.A.Baker.(31)’On the side of the Angels’By Harold Begbie about Mons Angels. (32)’ EFT Miracles & Angels’By Dr.V.Pearce. (33)’Angels All Around Us’By A.DeStefano. (34)’Touched by a Miracle: More True Stories….’ By N.Ladner-Bischoff. (35)’An Angel's Touch’By Nathalie Ladner-Bischoff.

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  10. This has given me such hope. My sister is mentally disabled and physically disabled. She has lived with my mom all her life and mom desperately wants me to care for her in my own home. I've never known if that was possible and yet there has been such guilt inside of me partly laid on me and also just my own guilt feelings, that I am shirking responsibility and being selfish if she does not come to live with me in my home. She is 8 years older than I am. Your post gave me hope that there is a solution where my sister can be in a place that gives her better care than I can but that also still allows for all of us(I have brothers also) to be in her life. She is 59 years old so I'm not sure how she will adjust after all these years but I do think we as a family have been prideful in not excepting help and always thinking we could do it all. Thanks for the glimpse of hope. Thanks for your honesty in your book. It really helped me, to know grace.

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  11. Ironically, my son is 20, severly autistic and his name is Jacob. My Jacob recently aged out of the Children's home he was in into an Adult home. It has been a rough transition for him and all of us to put it mildly. After going into week for of this new transition he is starting to settke a little better. We kept Jake home untill he was almost 13 untill he got so strong I could no longer handle him. He was becoming a threat to himself and other's so we had to do what we never though we would have to face. I thought the day he left our care and went to the care of total strangers I thought I was going to die. It's been rough, but through faith and prayer we have made it. I love to read your stories about your son. They are so familiar, so candid and so very real. God bless you, your family and your Angel, Jake. We are blessed beyond measure to be able to experience such unconditional love.

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