THE HAPPY DANCE!!!

It's OFFICIAL! We have met our fundraising goal for 4 Paws For Ability and are scheduled for the two week training in December 2008. We are getting a service dog!!! (happy dance! happy dance!). Start to finish will have been less than a year...remarkably fast in the service dog world, but excruciatingly slow in this house! But, WHATEVER you do, DON'T PRAY for PATIENCE for us (puhleeze.... I know how God answers that prayer!!!! LOL!!).

Thank you SO much to all of you who donated...no donation was too small and every dollar made a difference!! Your love and prayers have moved mountains! Love, Claudia

Praying for Official Word that We're DONE!

Well, today is March 1st, so we're praying for that special email that says that we've OFFICIALLY (as in "the checks have cleared the bank") done fundraising for 4 Paws! This has got to be the longest day of my life so far!

Christopher asked if his dog could pray with him and I immediately thought of this picture! We told him that, yes, his dog could probably pray with him!

I'll post again as soon as I get any information from Karen (Shirk) at 4 Paws. Hopefully, when we find out we're DONE we'll get dates for our training class as well. I've heard rumors that the next class that has openings (for dogs that will do tracking, like Christopher's) is DECEMBER 2008. I know there is another tracking class in September but rumor is that it is FULL :(

So pray extra hard today for us.... and I'll post again later. Love to all of you who have so graciously supported us along the way with donations and most of all PRAYERS! Hugs, Claudia

Good News!

I've got some good news:

Our fundraising goal for "4 Paws For Ability, Inc." has been, my my best "accounting", MET! Now we just need our travel fund for training. As soon as I have "official" word and dates for our training in Ohio, I'll let you know!

Love, Claudia

The Power of Paradox

I just received an email from a remarkable man named Jim Harrell http://www.jamesmharrellfoundation.org/. Jim has ALS and he, like me, feels that he is BLESSED to have ALS! To the world, we are fools. How could we be blessed with this illness?

Not coincidentally (I don't believe in coincidences), Jim contacte me via Randy Alcorn. Randy has written a phenomenal book simply entitled "Heaven" which I am studying with my church small group. I contacted Randy to get recommendations on books on Heaven for Christopher (Randy has written several children's books on Heaven as well and has a ministry called Eternal Perspective Ministries).

Jim and I are blessed by ALS. We are loosing our lives, but we are gaining our SOULS! Matthew 10:39 says, "Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."

Did you know that for every American who believes he's going to Hell, there are 120 who believe they are going to Heaven*? A legitimate question is "Why do you think that?". Is Heaven our default destination? The Bible says is is NOT. Matthew 7:13-14 says: "13 Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." Romans 3:23-24 says, "23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus."

Do you know where YOU'RE going? I do. C. S. Lewis wrote:
"You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you." --A Grief Observed

Well, guess what? Being human is 100% fatal. I only know in advance that I may not live as long as you think you will. Think about it. The truth in the paradox....."Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."

Michael Card sings a song called "God's Own Fool"

The lyrics follow:

Seems I've imagined Him all of my life
As the wisest of all of mankind
But if God's Holy wisdom is foolish to men
He must have seemed out of His mind
For even His family said He was mad
And the priests said a demon's to blame
But God in the form of this angry young man
Could not have seemed perfectly sane

Chorus
When we in our foolishness thought we were wise
He played the fool and He opened our eyes
When we in our weakness believed we were strong
He became helpless to show we were wrong

And so we follow God's own fool
For only the foolish can tell-
Believe the unbelievable
And come be a fool as well
So come lose your life for a carpenter's son
For a madman who died for a dream
And you'll have the faith
His first followers had
And you'll feel the weight of the beam
So surrender the hunger to say you must know
Have the courage to say I believe
For the power of paradox opens your eyes
And blinds those who say they can see

Chorus
So we follow God's own Fool
For only the foolish can tell
Believe the unbelievable,
And come be a fool as well

* K.Connie Kang, "Nest Stop, the Pearly Gates...or Hell?" Los Angeles Times, October 24, 2003

Waiting for March 1st.....

Several of you have asked if we've finished fundraising for the dog yet. 4 Paws policy is that families can only request fundraising totals twice a month (on the 1st and 15th, otherwise we'd be calling and emaling 500 times a day...or at least I would!!!!). So I can't get an 'official' total again until March 1st. Of course, I KNOW about the $10,000 donation so I can mentally add that (giving the total of $13,348.53 listed below). My prayer is that we will have met our $14k goal on March 1st.

After our 4 Paws fundraising goal is met we will need to begin to work on chipping away at the $3000 travel expenses for training (we will be traveling, per contract with 4 Paws, with two additional adults, plus Christopher, myself and Amy .. and we'll be taking "our dog" (!) back to the hotel with us every night so we will be staying at the Residence Inn Beavercreek ...hence donations of Marriott points being welcome!).

Tax deductible gifts for travel can be sent to:

Congregation of the Covenants

c/o Malcolm Smith

6927 Thousand Oaks Lane

Indianapolis, IN 46214-3298

On the memo line, please designate for what your gift is to be used. A receipt will be mailed to you at the end of the year.

I promise an update on totals as soon as I get one!!!!!!!!! Thanks for your prayers, love and support. Hugs, Claudia