A few weeks ago I was texting with a family in our network. They have been through months and months of challenge with one of their children. This child now lives out of state to get the treatment needed for his disability. I am certain you can imagine the potential challenges with this …
Have you ever wondered what people talk about when they see MarriageAbility? If you were a little mouse hiding under our table at recent events, here are some of the comments you’d hear. “MarriageAbility? Are you going to help me find my next husband?” “Marriage—I tried that three times. It’s not …
The conference was nearly over. Exhibitors were packing up their displays and heading out. A young man in a power wheelchair hovered in the open area between Luke 14 Exchange’s table and three others. I’d seen him around, but we’d never talked. We nodded to one another and said “hello.” Joshua told …
Authors often compare the publishing process as a birth of their book baby. Though I’ve never birthed a child, I can resonate with the pangs of delivering a book. Babies and new moms get baby showers. Book babies and their author get a Book Launch Party (but you don’t need to bring a gift). …
Jerry was invited to speak at a C12 local leadership summit luncheon in Pennsylvania this summer. He spoke on Transparency in Leadership. He built upon an idea inspired by Craig Groeschel: Transparency + Empathy + Consistency = Trust. “It’s obvious to everybody in the room that I am in a …
This summer Jerry and Joan again worked with two camps, Breakaway in Florida and Camp Celebrate in Tennessee. At each camp, we were privileged to spend much of our time with the adult family members who attended—mostly moms and dads. Through one-on-one conversations and group discussions, we sought …
Here is a podcast from one of the people I mentor. Bill Copple has survived multiple brain injuries. I think that listening to this podcast will help you understand how people with brain injury work to overcome. A couple of times during the interview Bill says that he “hates his life” when I asked …
This blog is from Jerry’s workshop at the 2023 Family Cafe Conference in Orlando, Florida. To watch the video, click here. We all have that little voice inside our head that is constantly judging and criticizing us. We often refer to this voice as our inner critic. It can cause us to feel doubt, …
In our last post, Ideas to Help a Caregiver Care Again, I shared ways we can recognize and work through the feelings of weariness, overwork, loneliness, etc. that sometimes plaque caregivers. In this post, I’ll share some ideas to stay ahead of those feelings, or at least rebound once we’ve …
When people hear one of my speaking topics is Caregiving When You Just Don’t Care I get a number of tongue in cheek remarks, such as “Are you an example of not caring? Is that why you can speak about it?” Truth be told, YES! We all get weary from things we do over and over and over again. …