A woman’s got to do what a woman’s got to do, and sometimes it’s tough, making changes, rearranging schedules to accommodate loved ones. This is what I had to do for today. My pastor-husband, who goes to work every day and works every day for our family and church family providing fresh food for our bodies and souls and moves my soul with how he works, asked me to get a sitter to watch the boys so I could serve with him at a funeral. I went to work immediately because this hardworking man hardly asks me for anything and I wanted to help him. Though Monday is a blogging day and the weekend’s activities would prevent me from choosing another writing day to get my post done, I get a sitter. With a misplaced button for my only decent suit, questionable pantyhose, a puffy mane, little makeup remaining, and a heart hungry to be with my boys, I go and I get more,

More strength to make changes for my family
More resolve to serve them
More love for my hardworking man
More praise for a God who gave me all them
More awe of my sitter, who fed and dressed my kids and cleaned my house too
More appreciation for my role as a wife and mother
More desire to do whatever God desires me to do

all because of Janice Tucker and her family. Today Janice buried Chucky, her firstborn son born with CHARGE Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder affecting one out of every 9-10,000 births worldwide. Though Chucky had most of the issues that characterize CHARGE, including balance, breathing and swallowing problems and vision, hearing and speech loss, Janice, a young mother at 20, refused to put her son in an institution when doctors told her that she should; when they said this would be best because Chucky probably wouldn’t live past toddlerhood, Janice said, “That’s my baby. He’s going home with me.” And Chucky did and lived to see 25 years mostly from having a persistent, insistent and patient mom, a planner who arranged her family to meet Chucky’s needs. Her five other children and her husband who came after Chucky all loved and cared for him. Her mother and sisters and friends, his teachers and their neighbors all loved and cared for him. With hundreds of hospital visits, a tracheotomy, feeding tube, wheelchair and learning and living that wasn’t “supposed” to happen, God showed through Chucky and Janice and her family His grace is sufficient for all of us who have to make changes to accommodate our loved ones, that His strength shows up when we are weak (2 Corinthians 12:9). And we can do all things through Jesus Christ, whether tough or small, routine or newly in, when we remain faced toward God and put all our trust in Him (Isaiah 26:3; Philippians 4:13).

Copyright 2011 by Rhonda J. Smith