On my soapbox..

*Know if you are taking the time to read this, I am grateful for you! I apologize if our views do not align about this treaty, but even if they don't, I'm still thankful you stopped by!!

Dear Readers,
 
  You may not know about it, or even care about it. But the U.N.'s Treaty for Equal Rights for Persons with Disabilities was defeated.
   The saddest part, to me, is that so many of the organizations my family and I support were vehemently opposed to this treaty. The treaty was going to require that churches have x amount of parking spaces for people in wheelchairs. It was going to mean that buildings had to be accessible. And oh my goodness, a lot of people were opposed to that! I mean, why would we want people in wheelchairs to have access to church?!? This greatly upset many!
   The treaty was also going to impact education for children with disabilities. These were the main things the homeschool organizations we supported were opposed to. They did not want the U.N. telling them what to do in their churches, because that might mean that religious freedom comes next. They don't want people taking their children away from them because they choose to home school.

  I, too,  do not want my religious freedom touched. I do not want the government telling me what education option to choose for MY child. But from what I understand,  this treaty was not going to touch that.

    This treaty was, however, going to make churches accessible. And this was the real kicker for me. Because, really, guys-- Why aren't our churches already accessible?! 
If we, as a church, claim to love the least of these, then why aren't we filled to the brim with wheelchair accessible parking spots?  Why doesn't every church have a special needs ministry? Why do we have to be forced by the government to make room for  people in wheelchairs in our churches?! I am embarrassed that anyone even had to write this treaty. Because the Church should be setting the standard for how people with disabilities are treated; not the United Nations. How sad. How truly, truly sad. There are so many children and adults in the United States who have a disability. With this disability comes so many struggles that the church could help them through!! Families with a newly diagnosed child are hurting...in fact, many families with special needs children are divorced. It's estimated that about 85% of families who have a child with Autism get a divorce. Might this rate go down if churches made more of an effort to reach out to these families?


   
      I have been blessed with a wonderful family who recognizes that Arizona's public education system is not the answer for us. They have taken the initiative and have provided us with an amazing blessing: the ability to home school. Not all families, however, are able to do this, and I realize that.
 
    There are children all around the world with disabilities who stay home from school because their parents don't know about services for the disabled (or there isn't such a thing in their country). These children are called a "burden to society"...but they have so much to contribute if only given the chance! I am sure this treaty is not perfect, because government is not perfect. It may not do much for these children...

But what if it did?

What if this treaty made sure that all Deaf children had access to sign language, and all children with disabilities were able to go to school? What if this made a difference in the lives of the millions of Disabled children and adults in the world? What if....

  But that "what if" can't happen, because this treaty was defeated. That hope that I held in my heart was stomped out by the very organizations I supported. Generation Joshua, The Home School Legal Defense, The Busy Home School Mom...they all followed their political party so strictly that they forget to follow our true leader, Jesus. Jesus didn't tell the paralytic's friends to stop lowering him down from that mat...he honored their efforts by blessing their friend. 

I pray that soon we will all be able to see through God's eyes--eyes of compassion and love first for others, with ourselves merely as an afterthought, if we have to be a thought at all. 

But until then, I am thankful that even when we make mistakes and forget to love first, God is just as loving and full of forgiveness.

If you have already made up your mind to be against this treaty, I ask that you look at it from someone else's eyes. It's too late to get it passed, I know, but it isn't too late for you to decide you are going to start LOVING before you blindly follow. 

Your Blogger,

Claire

P.S.--I'm blessed to attend a church that has a wonderful special needs ministry. If you are interested in learning more about Disability ministry, please visit: http://scottsdalebible.com/ministries/special-ministries and Joniandfriends.org 

A life update

Dear Readers,



The Mason Kids

 Between Grammie's birthday (where she, Uncle Talley, and Aunt Sarah came for a lovely visit), watching Harry Potter at the midnight showing, and going to the Paradise Valley Retirement Community with a bunch of friends for a service project, AND finishing up 8 grade--we have had a busy few weeks! So busy I have not had a chance to blog. But here am I, and I am armed with pictures! Let me start with Uncle Talley, Aunt Sarah, and Grammie's visit.

I loved these southwestern shots!



We drove to Sedona, Flagstaff, and Williams--the whole drive hiding this pineapple birthday cake!



And then, once in Williams, we took a train ride to the Grand Canyon.

The train ride was lovely!

We had SO much fun seeing the sights with our family, and then getting to celebrate Grammie on a train--nothing could have been lovelier! We had a wonderful time.

And the Grand Canyon is breath taking! What a wonderful artist God is!



This is an original telephone pole--that is very short! It had to be short enough that a man could reach it while staying on his horse.

 

Mom with her boys- who are, actually, Professor Lupin and Harry Potter!

Hermione and Bellatrix got along a bit too well. :)

We had a very good time at Harry Potter, as well. It was a lot of fun to pull costumes together last minute, and to be with friends in the middle of the night!ha The movie was  amazing, and everyone was so excited they would just go and talk with anyone! It was pretty cool to see.

Lupin and Harry



And I obviously didn't get enough costumed fun in this week, because today I donned a poodle skirt and went with Mason and some friends to a retirement home. We put on a talent show for the residents, where Mason announced each performance, I played my recital song on violin, a group of people came and played piano, and Breana, Ariana, and I signed to "Good Morning". (from Singing in the Rain)

It was so much fun to watch the residents tap their feet, and then afterward they all told us how many memories our poodle skirts brought up. And one kind man thanked us about a hundred times! They were a joy to be around.

 And then, after the show was over and we were trying to get the residents to play games with us, (no one seemed too interested) one lady came and asked if we would play piano again. She used to teach piano, and missed hearing it. So each of us went up and played her a song, and afterward she told me she wished someone could come and play everyday! I assured her we would be back in a few months. As always, my heart broke for those people.

Although, I must say, I was thinking that I liked going to nursing homes where they couldn't leave, because then they seemed to enjoy the performance a lot more, since they were unable to go out and about and these people were. But Mom reminded me that these people WERE in a nursing home, and regardless of whether they could run errands or not, they still were alone and we still were able to bring them joy. And that made me think of a scripture passage.

"Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing so some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it." -Hebrews 13:2

Isn't that a thrilling thought?  So, I came to the conclusion that whether you are stuck in an Alzheimer's home, young with lots of kids, or in the middle of 5 grade- you still need God. And we are called to lead them ALL to God! I feel so thankful for the oppurtunity to show this group of people God's love this morning.

(And at the same time, I made some pretty amazing friends! :) ) Your Blogger,

 Claire

Oh oh oh! I forgot to give you some exciting news!! Another neat thing that's been going on is that we got our roles for the "Cinderella" ballet. Mason will be narrator and Duke, Benjamin will be Gus Gus (the sweet,fat little mouse), Uncle Len will be the evil stepmother, and I will be Cinderella! Isn't that SO exciting??!! Just be praying that the parents of kids at United Cerebral Palsy will get their kids involved--God has some amazing things planned for this, we just have to get these kids in! Thank you so much!

A story of sunshine and rain. And what God's plan has to do with it.

  Dear Readers,
This week I realized that God has the absolute perfect plan. I know we all think 'God, why does this happen to        ?' (-insert your name or someone you know who's going through some unfairness) But, the truth of the matter is - Yes, some things in life are  NOT fair. But it's all in God's plan.  And He is seeing the Big picture - what's best for everyone. We tend to only see what's best for us and our dear ones.

Calico in China!

Such a silly girl...but beautiful with that parasol!

The dragon puppets were amazing to see.

God has planned for you to have sunny days, and rainy ones. If you praise Him in the sunshine and stand under His umbrella in the storm, you'll be okay.
    We had a sunshine-filled day on Friday, for sure. We went to the Chinese Festival. How my mother always comes up with ways to make every subject in school fascinating, I'll never know, but this was one such time.

 We've been studying China, and got a first hand experience yesterday. We ate Dim-Sum and watched a show with a lion puppet (I use that term loosely - more like a true-to-life-size lion), and that was really  amazing.  You could see the men underneath, but they made it move like an actual animal. And, we walked through the beautiful gardens at the Cultural center. The statues were lovely, and Cate was very photogenic with her parasol!

We also watched a lady paint our names in calligraphy. (We're about to do that in school, so it was perfect!)

Chinese calligraphy is such a graceful and fascinating art, I've always loved it. I'll share a picture of my name soon! Mom, Cate, and I went to the children's pavilion and made a lantern. Even though it was supposed to be too hard for children, Cate helped quite a bit and it turned out to be beautiful!

Lastly, we went to the Asian Market Grocery store. It was fascinating. We couldn't understand what we were eating at Dim-Sum, so it was neat to walk through and figure it all out. We saw huge tanks of catfish, octupus legs (suckers included!), baby squids, fish heads, and lots of ginger! We also got these little 'Fruti King' mini sodas which were adorable! (And really good, too!)

  So, as you can see, we had an amazing time. But on Thursday, however, Mom had a bit of sad news for me.   As you know, I'm part of AZ Friends in Sign, which translates songs into American Sign Language and signs them at different places. (nursing homes,hospitals,etc.)
  Well, this past Christmas we went to a home for people with Alzheimer's. I was completely unprepared for what I saw, and my heart went out to the people living there. One man there was deaf. He had not learned sign language, and so had no communication with the people around him.
  After we finished signing, he was reluctant to go back to his room! It made me so happy that we had brought him joy. And then, I went up to him and signed "Merry Christmas, thank you."
(Because we had gone around after the show and thanked all the residents for coming to watch). He signed thank you back to me! That was such a happy moment for me, and I was just certain I (or someone else in our group) HAD to come back and teach him more sign language.
   No one did ever get to teach him sign because he died not long after we performed.
I didn't know that, and so when Mom found out last Thursday so did I.  Mom said (she always has the perfect words) that it is better for him now, though, because he's in Heaven and he doesn't need sign language. He can hear now, and he can remember. That makes me so happy.
   Why am I telling you all this? For two reasons. 1.) Because you should know that God's plan is always perfect!  Yes-I was sad. I'm sure his family is sad. But I know he is happy, and much better in Heaven than here. I understand that this is a part of God's plan - and His plan is  wonderful and perfect. (He's a God of love, not maliciousness.)  
 2.) Alzheimer's is a terrible disease. And, as of right now, there is no cure for it. I'm certain God's plan has a  cure included in it, so did a bit of research to inform all my bloggy followers of. There is an organization called Alzheimer's CURE foundation, Inc.that has come up with a nice incentive for scientists. They are working to raise 20 million dollars to award the scientist who finds the cure. This will hopefully speed along the process and add a bit of competition to it! Please go to their website and help find a cure for this disease. Going to that home showed me that this is  a real thing. Not just something you can put statistics on and ignore. (I may be repeating last Saturday's lesson a bit...) 
  I hope my story will inspire you to spread the word, too. Your Blogger(who is SO glad to have a God who does the planning for me), Claire
P.S.- prayer is the best gift you can give! Please pray for the people around the world with Alzheimer's, and their families,too.

A corner of my life: Home schooling adventures!

Dear readers,

Being home schooled is a lot of fun! We have so much fun doing it that I would like to share a few of our adventures with you. We are ending our seventh grade year right now, so forgive me as I reminisce. At the start of this year we did a unit about pioneers. First of all - I love pioneers! I enjoy reading about them, writing about them, and yes, visiting museums about them. So, our first field trip of the year was to the Pioneer museum. In the above pictures you see the cute little church and my mom, sister and I in the gazebo. We had a ton of fun learning about pioneers as we peeked into historical buildings, pumped the water pump, and saw wheelchairs from the 1800s. Benjamin was certainly happy to have his power wheel chair and not one of those rickety things! I, remembering the episode of Little House on the Prairie in which Nellie Oleson faked injury and Laura pushed her down the hill, was thankful as well.
Another great experience we had was getting to bake bread. Though the process takes a while, it was completely worth it. My Mom and I (and Cate!) love baking...and even my brothers enjoyed getting their hands in the dough! All week we could only eat food with out additives or preservatives or anything else the pioneers did not have, so in order to eat bread we had to bake it ourselves! We took a picnic lunch to the Pioneer museum and ate some delicious peanut butter and jelly sandwiches! We even made our own peanut butter at the grocery store! I'm not a fan of regular PB&J, but this was delicious! As for the time it took to make...it really wasn't too bad. (I would have waited all week if that's what it took to have the ultimate pioneer experience) But you can't complain about the time-

Amish friendship bread takes 28 days to make!! (I'm making that next.)

Sadly, the pioneer unit is over now. On the bright side, we're still having some fun times! We have a dear friend, Andrew, who is going to school at the University of Arizona. My Mom and him arranged for us to head to Tucson for some one -on -one time with the cows at the University! I got to palpate several cows! It was the most amazing day! The first cow I maybe felt the calf - but I couldn't tell. The first heifer (bovine that has never had a calf) wasn't pregnant. I couldn't tell anything on her either. The second heifer did not want to be there. (Who would?) She put her head down adamantly and did not want me touching her. Well, I did any way - even though I felt awful about it - and BINGO! As you can tell from the below picture...I found the calf! I would go into all the details about how I got there and how the inside of a cow(or heifer) feels, but as I've learned from relating these facts to my family, not everyone wants to know. If you would like to know please comment on this post saying so and I will be more than happy to email you! That sweet calf was on its back and I was feeling its knees. It was about the size of a cat and I can not wait to see it! I'm sure it will be the cutest calf in the pasture when it is born. :) It was absolutely amazing! I enjoyed it so much that when Mom kept saying "Don't worry, honey. We can get you a new shirt." I had no idea what she was talking about! I was covered in the heifer's last meal but didn't notice because I was having the time of my life! I encourage you, if ever you get the oppurtunity, to do the same as me and have fun palpating without worrying about your clothing! You'll thank yourself later!

Thank the Lord for moms like mine willing to come up with the funnest and craziest ideas to make school fun! And thanks for friends and heifers willing to help that idea happen! This was just one corner of my life. I hoped you enjoyed it and the many more to come!