Community
Community, what does it mean to you? For Merriam-Webster it means a unified body of individuals as the people with common interests living in a particular area.
Community can be your family, your neighborhood, your church, your town. Community can be anything. Community to me is those who are put in our lives to live life with us. Those who God has given us to love and care for during good and bad times. Community is a body of believers from near and far who pray endlessly for you and your family. Community is a group of people who have been through the same thing you have.
I belong to a lot of communities: adoption community, heart momma's community, loss of a child community, a local community of believers, and a community of believers near and far to name a few. Community, it is what has helped me grow in my relationship with Christ while going through the loss of Calvin. Our community has been the biggest blessing ever, from visiting in the hospital to taking me out for a girls night, from supporting us at the beginning of our adoption to loving on us at the death of our son, from bringing food to us every night for 6 weeks to helping pay for funeral expenses. Our community is amazing.
Being in the hospital for a long time with a sick child can get pretty lonesome. It can make you go crazy and have emotional breakdowns. Taking care of a child with a heart condition who can't talk or tell you how they feel can be very emotionally, physically, & mentally stressful. When we were in the hospital last January I ended up having a breakdown. I was emotionally, mentally, physically, and spiritually exhausted. I was tired of being there and was ready to go home. I didn't have much of a community then. I didn't have any heart momma's to talk to, didn't get too many visitors, and barely left the hospital. I learned that I needed people, I needed to be around people I knew, I needed that for my strength and sanity. I knew the second time in the hospital I was going to need my community.
This last time in the hospital we made friends with a few families, I had some heart momma's who I knew were there if I needed to talk. I was able to help a family who felt their life was over, I was a light in their darkness, but they were also a huge light in mine. To have someone to talk to and just check up on made all the difference. I met a momma who was there with her son waiting for a heart transplant, we became instant & forever friends. We were there for each other. Same with other families I met. I still keep in touch with them and check up on them. I was able to visit with them a couple weeks ago when we went back to just say hi & thank the staff.
I believe everyone needs community. We all need someone who will sit up with us at night when we can't sleep, even if its on Facebook. Someone who will drive 2 hours at 10pm at night when you tell them your son just died. Someone who will clean up all the baby items in your home so you don't have to. Someone who will get a group of friends together to meet you at home so you don't have to go in alone. Someone to just listen and cry with when you don't even know why your crying. Community is an amazing thing.
Are you in someone's community? Are you that person who sits up with them late at night when the tears won't come? Are you the one who cleans the house? I want to say thank you!! Thank you for being a part of a community and loving on someone.
Without my community, all of them, I would be a mess. I am so thankful I get to do life with them and I get to love on them as much as they love on me. I'm so blessed by those that have sat up with me and cried, brought us food, spent time just hanging at the hospital, loved on my little Calvin, cared enough to call & text daily to see how I was doing, put away the baby stuff so I didn't have to see it, helped raise funds, who drove long distances to just love on us in the hard times, and who met us when we came home to love on us and not let us go into our home alone. You will never know what your love has done for me. It has helped me heal & grieve well. It has helped me continue to grow in Christ and it has helped me be able to love on my family the way God intended.
John 13:34-35 "A new command I have given you, Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." God calls us to love one another and to build one another up (I Thessalonians 5:11). My community did that, they loved me, and encouraged me more than I could have ever imagined.
To my community THANK YOU!!! You are Christ in the flesh to me. Thanks for living life with us and living it well.
Community can be your family, your neighborhood, your church, your town. Community can be anything. Community to me is those who are put in our lives to live life with us. Those who God has given us to love and care for during good and bad times. Community is a body of believers from near and far who pray endlessly for you and your family. Community is a group of people who have been through the same thing you have.
I belong to a lot of communities: adoption community, heart momma's community, loss of a child community, a local community of believers, and a community of believers near and far to name a few. Community, it is what has helped me grow in my relationship with Christ while going through the loss of Calvin. Our community has been the biggest blessing ever, from visiting in the hospital to taking me out for a girls night, from supporting us at the beginning of our adoption to loving on us at the death of our son, from bringing food to us every night for 6 weeks to helping pay for funeral expenses. Our community is amazing.
Being in the hospital for a long time with a sick child can get pretty lonesome. It can make you go crazy and have emotional breakdowns. Taking care of a child with a heart condition who can't talk or tell you how they feel can be very emotionally, physically, & mentally stressful. When we were in the hospital last January I ended up having a breakdown. I was emotionally, mentally, physically, and spiritually exhausted. I was tired of being there and was ready to go home. I didn't have much of a community then. I didn't have any heart momma's to talk to, didn't get too many visitors, and barely left the hospital. I learned that I needed people, I needed to be around people I knew, I needed that for my strength and sanity. I knew the second time in the hospital I was going to need my community.
This last time in the hospital we made friends with a few families, I had some heart momma's who I knew were there if I needed to talk. I was able to help a family who felt their life was over, I was a light in their darkness, but they were also a huge light in mine. To have someone to talk to and just check up on made all the difference. I met a momma who was there with her son waiting for a heart transplant, we became instant & forever friends. We were there for each other. Same with other families I met. I still keep in touch with them and check up on them. I was able to visit with them a couple weeks ago when we went back to just say hi & thank the staff.
I believe everyone needs community. We all need someone who will sit up with us at night when we can't sleep, even if its on Facebook. Someone who will drive 2 hours at 10pm at night when you tell them your son just died. Someone who will clean up all the baby items in your home so you don't have to. Someone who will get a group of friends together to meet you at home so you don't have to go in alone. Someone to just listen and cry with when you don't even know why your crying. Community is an amazing thing.
Are you in someone's community? Are you that person who sits up with them late at night when the tears won't come? Are you the one who cleans the house? I want to say thank you!! Thank you for being a part of a community and loving on someone.
Without my community, all of them, I would be a mess. I am so thankful I get to do life with them and I get to love on them as much as they love on me. I'm so blessed by those that have sat up with me and cried, brought us food, spent time just hanging at the hospital, loved on my little Calvin, cared enough to call & text daily to see how I was doing, put away the baby stuff so I didn't have to see it, helped raise funds, who drove long distances to just love on us in the hard times, and who met us when we came home to love on us and not let us go into our home alone. You will never know what your love has done for me. It has helped me heal & grieve well. It has helped me continue to grow in Christ and it has helped me be able to love on my family the way God intended.
John 13:34-35 "A new command I have given you, Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." God calls us to love one another and to build one another up (I Thessalonians 5:11). My community did that, they loved me, and encouraged me more than I could have ever imagined.
To my community THANK YOU!!! You are Christ in the flesh to me. Thanks for living life with us and living it well.
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