Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

I bet we've all had at least one day in our life when we thought that it was a "terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day." I know I have. In fact, I've had more than one. I've even felt like I've had a string of them. However, in all honesty, I live a very blessed life. I may have a day where it feels like everything is going wrong, but it's really not.

I wonder at times what I would do if I suddenly found out one of my children had a chronic illness. One that not only would make them sick more often than not, but one that would eventually take them from me far too early. I wonder what I would do if my husband lost his job. I wonder what I would do if we had no way of supporting ourselves - if we had tried everything we could think of - if my husband had applied to many, many places, but still couldn't work. How would I handle that? Would I still smile? Would I still be happy? Would I let the circumstances of my life completely overwhelm me? Or would I let my faith shine through. Would I trust so fully in God that I would just know it would all work out?

I still wonder how I would handle it, but my friend Kate lives it.

I first "met" Kate on-line. I say "met" because Kate and her wonderful family live in South Carolina and we've never met face to face. I joined an Yahoo group for homeschoolers about five years ago. During that time I started to get to know the ladies on that group. Kate found out she was pregnant with her seventh child, a little boy they were going to name Noah. I created a scrapbook for him and sent it off to her in anticipation of her newest bundle of joy joining their family.

Then within the first year of Noah's life Kate and Jeff realized something wasn't quite right. Eventually Noah was diagnosed with a mitochondrial disease. He is only three years old now but gone through a lot medically and continues to go through it. In fact, you may have noticed off on my side bar -----------> I have a photo that says "Pray for Noah" with an adorable little boy looking back at you. If you click that photo, it will take you to Kate's blog where you can read far more about little Noah.

So why am I sharing all this with you today? Remember how I said Jeff hadn't worked in a long while. He has the opportunity to start a business that would help support his family, but they do not have the start-up money for this. You see, Jeff once had a good job and they also had a successful online business called Hands and Hearts. Along with some wonderful homeschooling resources, they also made and sold custom hands on history kits (they are truly wonderful). Then last year the government passed the CPSIA regulations geared toward anything related to children in order to keep them safe. Unfortunately, the testing required of Jeff and Kate for their history kits made it impossible for them to continue selling them ($1000's per kit for testing!!).

Friends of Jeff and Kate and many members of the homeschooling community have put together a fundraiser for the Estes Family. It is a $350+ eResource kit to help raise money for Jeff to start his own business. They are asking for at least a $39 donation. All money raised will be going towards helping Jeff start his business. There are also two grand prizes and three first prizes full of actual physical gifts that will be given away via a random drawing pulled from everyone who donates. You can click HERE to read what you will be getting for your donation. You can also see a list of the prizes up for grabs. However, this is only good for a couple more days. It expires on January 29th!

I am always blessed by reading Kate's blog. No matter how dire the circumstances and sometimes it's pretty scary what they are facing, her faith continues to shine through. Last Sunday we were taught about spiritual gifts and faith was one of them. Kate truly has this gift. If you can help this family, please prayerfully consider it. Thank you.