Caregiving has forever changed me. In some beautiful, cherished ways and in some ways I'm not at all proud of too. I believe we honor God and experience richer lives when we let life refine us — shape us for the better. The scary things is, the Almighty Refiner might choose to use a furnace of very high heat. The fires of life can make us terribly uncomfortable. Our human nature will be to resist the fire. This week's blog considers the opportunities we find in the fires of disability and caregiving.

Is there such thing as "good" grief? For caregivers in families where someone has a disability, complex health condition or mental health concerns, grief can find plenty of triggers. Parenting my own daughter Carly, who has Angelman Syndrome, brings a joy and richness to our lives that can't be explained. But it also wrings us out emotionally. Each person in my family has experienced grief in their own ways and at their own times. We try to make room for each other to work through those feelings. But that is a regular challenge. Our aim is to live according to this biblical principle: We're called to create safe spaces for processing individual and family grief. In today's blog, we're exploring this principle and how to find the "holy moments" when grief may be a regular visitor in our homes and hearts.

With a couple of exceptions, it has been more than two years since my family has been to church, in person. My husband and I are still uncertain about how or when we will get our daughter back to church. We aren’t even sure when we ourselves will go back. The factors influencing our decisions about returning to church services range from logistical issues to behavioral concerns involved with our daughter’s readjustment process. If I’m honest, we are also struggling with the transition emotionally. We’re experiencing disappointments and longings about how church was done with us before the pandemic and during the pandemic. Now we’re wondering about the prospects for what life and ministry will be like for us after the pandemic. God says special needs families and churches matter to each other. Today's blog explores three things churches can do to help restore community with families impacted by disability.