Today, I need help remembering all the many times God has given me strength through the journey that is The Therapy Place. Today we received word that a large funder is not going to be able to help us out like we had thought. A lot of our dreams hinged on this happening...we receive calls daily from families wishing to sign their kids up for traditional as well as innovative therapies...we have received word that yet another pediatric therapy center is closing in the midlands...we have therapists ready to be hired because they like the family-centered philosophy as opposed to what they called "assembly-line" therapy. So many are depending on us to get the doors open - I feel we are letting them down. I know God has gotten us to this point and I have faith it is going to work out - perhaps even larger than my own expectations...but right now it is a hard pill to swallow...because so many are waiting, so many are desperate to find services for their children...

There is so much stacked against these families - medicaid restricting the number of visits per day - the most expensive therapy, they'll pay full amount, any others only half...making families split up the days of therapy - more trips, more effort and hassle on their part...it gets depressing...must remember the good times and the good that we have done...the minacles listed here help me remember how we KNOW that God is at the helm. And I wish we had posted everytime we experienced a minacle during this process...trying to remember now...to uplift me during these times...

this one isn't ours...but WOW, had to share...

Amazing story from ESPN's "Outside the Lines" - 72-year old amputeee befriends 10-year old boy..."chance" encounter as the boy is going to have his own leg amputated starts friendship...get the kleenex...

Clocks on the computer don't lie

So, I'm sitting at my "desk" looking at our bank account online thinking of our upcoming bills and how we won't be receiving reimbursement for our grant for a few weeks...how are we going to make ends meet? I am all about having faith as this entire journey has brought me so much closer to God and I can certainly see His hand in every step we've taken...but sometimes, you just have to say "how are we going to do this?" I sent an email to Susan and a couple of others saying that we are teetering on the edge. No sooner had I clicked send (12:49pm) than in came a paypal donation receipt of $1,000 from a friend of my mom's (1:02pm). Mary Beth told us that she didn't sit down at the computer to make the donation, she was doing other things and she is not what you would call a wealthy philanthropist-type. She has been following The Therapy Place and said she felt something come over her (holy spirit) and clicked the donate button on our web site...this had to have happened at the same time I was stressing on the other end of that computer string of emails...Amazing Grace, how sweet thou art!

Finding our facility

About .5 miles from my house (on Covenant Road) sat a very large vacant building, once a furniture store and furniture restoration. The building had big, inviting windows across the front and a large columned entrance - Susan and I kept passing it and even printed the realty picture and stuck our logo on the front as our little joke. Well, we made an appointment with the agent, even knowing that the rent was $4,500 and the asking price was $275,000. I was dying to see inside. Well, the inside was incredible - very large spaces (perfect for physical therapy gym), long corridor with built-in cubicles perfect for storing therapy toys and equipment - housing a family resource room with resources lining the walls...The agent must not have thought much of us but I gave him our brochure and said "you never know if the owner has a special needs child in his life or just needs a tax write-off."

Several weeks passed, and the building wasn't going anywhere...we were under no pressure because we certainly couldn't afford the price so we just knew if it was meant to be, God would work it out...so, I'm speaking at a Sunday School class (the Believers) at my church (Trenholm Road United Methodist) and I'm asked what sort of space are we looking for...well, that's a tough one...we could use a small space for Conductive Education, like we had used the summer before borrowed from Trinity Episcopal, but what we would really love is a large space that we could grow into wtihout the moving as we grew. A lady walks up to me, Mary Winter Teaster...of the same real estate agency of the agent I had met on Covenant. She says, I know just the place...there's a vacant building on Covenant...my hair stood on end...I told her I knew just the one...this encounter led to meetings with the landlord and continued conversations. The landlord believed in what we were doing, due to his own personal circumstances and, admitted it was a good business deal for him as well. But he reduced the lease by more than 3/4!!!!!!!!!!! GOD IS GOOD!