Memory Walk

Somehow this slipped up on me this year.  I didn't even realize it was happening until last night, but thankfully we had a beautiful open Saturday to attend.  

J and I decided to walk in the 2010 Memory Walk for Alzheimer's, in honor of our Uncle Chick.  Our local walk raised over $17,000 for Alzheimer's research!  

I have encouraged you before...and I am encouraging you again...get out and walk for a cause.  There are so many out there.  Take your kids and walk.  There are autism walks now, alzheimers, March of Dimes, many many cancer walks...and most of them just ask for a minimum donation or sign up fee.  It's a great thing to teach your children and you get some fun exercise in the process!  You both will learn what's out there, what's going on in the research and you will meet some amazing people. 

Our friend Ms. J'nay nay (not real name, ha!) walked and worked out there!

After about 2 miles, I asked J if he wanted to hang out on the side of the track with a friend of mine, but he wanted to keep going with me. Granted, he was being pushed in his wheelchair, but he was an official participant :)  And he thinks about Uncle Chick sometimes, tries to think of ways to help him remember Grandad (U. Chick is my dad's oldest brother)

Holy Horses!

Thought I'd give you all a break in the South Carolina trip...and because what happened today at horses was pretty cool.  

We started J on horse riding lessons again this fall, it's been about 3 years since he's been on a horse so he was a bit nervous.   Nice thing about these lessons, they are just 4 miles from our home :)  Awesome thing about these lessons, Ms. Joy (his instructor) started off his first lesson with scripture and prayer.  And the scripture focused on fear, which as most of you who know J know he has a high fear level.  Fear of being left alone, fear of loud noises, fear of falling, etc.. etc...  
God put Ms. Joy in our lives not only for therapy and fun but so J could hear His Word and see it working in his life.

Meeting Paco the first lesson

3rd week (I was avoiding the horse's legs this week, lol!)

Here's were the the Holy Horses comes in :)
Today was his 4th riding lesson.  (Lesson 2 is where I was kicked by Holy Horse #1...it HURT..and it's still numb, isn't that fun?)  He's been so excited about horse lessons since the first one and today was no exception.

Paco the Wonder Horse, as Ms. Joy's son and J call him, started us off well.  Instead of just riding and working on steering the horse, J was to go around some cones on barrels to put rings around the cones while on the horse.  

Well, Paco apparently wanted NOTHING to do with these cones.  He wouldn't get close to them and when Ms. Joy tried to pull him to one, he started backing up quickly which of course, freaked J out completely as he was still on Paco.  Now yes, Ms. Joy's son was right beside J and he was fine, the horse simply backed up but to J it felt like he was going to fall right off.  He used a lot of leg muscle to anchor himsefl and he grabbed Paco's mane to hold on, which we were proud of...thankful he didn't just let go altogether.  Still the tears came from the fear.  And horses are big, it's hard not to be frightened sometimes.

After we discovered Paco is not a fan of orange cones and blue barrels, Ms. Joy just let J continue to work on turning the horse and riding him around the arena.  

Here's part 1 of the cool...for the next 10 minutes while riding Paco, Ms. Joy continually talked to J about fear, comparing his fear with Paco's, but letting J figure it out.  How Paco's fear of a cone really isn't a rational fear, just like some of J's and how if we think we're going to fall, etc...all the time, chances are we will.   She also had him repeat 2 verses she has been telling him about for the last few weeks.  

Here's part 2 of the cool...once J was off of Paco (and he was totally relieved), Mrs. Joy decided that we would use a different horse next week, Dusty.  One that was used to cones and not scared of anything.  This became even more a teaching tool for J that wasn't planned.  We are moving from "fear" to "confidence".  From Paco to Dusty.  We are leaving fear behind.  J became much happier once he met Dusty, an old horse who simply begs for petting and isn't scared of a thing.  


And here's the ultimate part of the cool...when J asked Mrs. Joy why we didn't start with Dusty she told him she had prayed about which horse to use at first and Paco was the choice.  Today after he became "fear" to J and she decided to introduce us to Dusty, she was at peace with the change and so was J.  She looked at me and said "You know, I think God wanted us to use Paco so J could see what God wants to help him with.  I think we're going to do just fine from here on out."  


On our way out of the gate, she had J turn around to the arena and say "Goodbye fear, you are not my friend".  He had a hard time getting it out because truly, fear is quite a companion in his life. 


What an amazing and personal God we have.  I love that He works even through an hour long horse lesson for one 11 year old boy :)  It's a great start!