Friday, January 4, 2019

Week 16 ~ Delighting in the Positives

Our Christmas break was filled with great joys and a few deep sorrows. That is the nature of life. Tragedies and hard times don't stop just because of the holidays. Most of our hard times were around our estranged special needs daughter turning 18 and becoming legal guardian over herself. She is only capable of being her own guardian if she trusts her mental health team to help her make safe decisions. Unfortunately, there has been a huge breakdown in trust and communication within her team and a few key members were on vacation during her coming of age. All of these issues led to a breakdown in her services and a huge scramble on our part to try and right the ship even though we, as the parents of a legal adult, have almost no power. We did hear yesterday that she had signed the correct legal papers to put her mental health caseworker and the overseeing facility in charge of her life for one more year. This journey has been so very painful and the struggles ahead are still great. We are not sure how much we will know or be involved with those struggles, but we will continue to advocate from the side lines and pray, pray, pray. I have heard that young people with her mental health issues are especially hard during the teen and young adult years and hers have certainly been turbulent. However, being fortunate enough to be in a mental health system has been a huge blessing for her. The other hardship is that my Dad is very ill again. He has been in and out of the hospital over the holidays. He was put back in last night. They think something is wrong with his lungs (cancer, more fungus??), and that may be why he isn't getting better. Hopefully, we will know by the end of the weekend so that the latest fight in my father's decade-old battle with leukemia can continue.

But, there is much joy throughout the heartache. Here are a few favorite things from the last few weeks.

We had a wonderful time rollerskating. 
Image may contain: 3 people, including Dawn Beasom Purdom, people smiling, shoes, night and indoor
Dean does not have green hair -- he's just sitting under a green light!

Image may contain: 3 people, including Dawn Beasom Purdom, people smiling, people standing and shoes

Image may contain: 2 people, people smiling, people standing and shoes


Anne's main Christmas present was tickets to a Lindsey Stirling concert. Only Anne and I attended, and we had a wonderful mother and daughter time.
Image may contain: 3 people, including Dawn Beasom Purdom, people smiling, selfie, indoor and closeup

We had a lovely New Year's Day board game party. We had a big turnout with 16 people all laughing, eating and playing games. People were playing in different rooms throughout the house.


Image may contain: 4 people, including Laura Sheridan, people smiling, people sitting and people standing

Image may contain: 2 people, people smiling, people sitting and indoor

The latest book by Karen Andreola was released and my copy arrived in the mail last night! I can't wait to drink it all up. It is titled Mother Culture for a Happy Homeschool. It even came with an encouraging postcard of the painting, "Snap the Whip" by Winslow Homer, which was my kids' very first picture study years and years ago. I love all of her books.

On the school front, we got back to work this week and reentry hasn't been very hard. We are really in a good place with our lessons, so we aren't making any major changes. We are making only a few additions. For Dean's art course, we are streaming a new Netflix show called Fake or Fortune, which is about identifying real works of art from forgeries. Dean is starting the classroom portion of driver's ed online. Hewitt Drew It has been added to our physics lessons. Finally, we are making sure that we apply Charlotte Mason philosophies to all of our curriculum -- using short lessons, more narration, living books and lots of freedom to enjoy the beauty of art, music and nature.

Blessings, Dawn

5 comments:

  1. I'm so sorry for the hard things. I so understand and am right in the trenches with you about navigating a young adult child who struggles so very hard. My Rose Red was not as challenging as your Goldilocks during the earlier teen years, but I have a hunch they could give one another a run for the money right now. I'm hanging on to the hope that once the turbulence of the next decade or so is over, there is a chance for peace and success at life. We have a friend with a sister with FAS and RAD, and now that she's hit her 30s, she's slowly calming down and accepting help and turning her life around. You're ever in my heart and prayers as you try to hard to help your girl.

    We haven't started school, but we're supposed to on Monday. I'm not sure I can keep that commitment, but I'm hoping.

    I'm glad you had a happy New Year celebration. I hope reasons to celebrate keep coming!!!

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  2. Sorry to hear about your daughter's struggles and your dad. It's wonderful you were still able to find the positives and have some fun. We're going to have to check out that Netflix show; it sounds really neat!

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  3. I'm grateful you share both the positives and the hard things. Isn't that life? Good if we choose to see it and hard so often. Praying!

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  4. Great photos of skating. I know how had it is to get good photos in low light places. Your game night sounds awesome! I am sorry to hear all your hardship. I will be praying for you.

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  5. Prayers for your daughter and dad, and you as you try to advocate for both.

    The skating and game day look like loads of fun!

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