#‎30DaysOfThanks‬ 6 and 7

Newest additions to this month's thankfulness list and a sweet (home schooling) story: 

Nov. 6 Thankful Photo: Thankful that my potential breast cancer scare last month was totally benign!
‪#‎30DaysOfThanks‬

Quoting from Facebook, "One day, Thomas Edison came home and gave a paper to his mother. He told her, “My teacher gave this paper to me and told me to only give it to my mother.”
His mother’s eyes were tearful as she read the letter out loud to her child: "Your son is a genius. This school is too small for him and doesn’t have enough good teachers for training him. Please teach him yourself."
After many, many years, Edison’s mother died, and he had become one of the greatest inventors of the century. One day he began looking through old family things. Suddenly he saw a folded paper in the corner of a drawer in a desk. He took it and opened it up. On the paper was written: "Your son is addled [mentally ill]. We won’t let him come to school any more."
Edison cried for hours and then he wrote in his diary: “Thomas Alva Edison was an addled child that, by a hero mother, became the genius of the century.” ❤#ThePowerOfAnExtraodinaryMother "

Nov. 7 Thankful Photo: Short version, I'm ever-so-thankful for the many people, ministries, authors and organizations who have profoundly touched my life and been used of God to mold me into the person I am today!

Longer answer, far from an exclusive list, but a few highlights that especially stand out in my mind at the moment. Cadence International (formerly OCSC or Overseas Christian Servicemen's Centers) is the core of my childhood, along with my parents, Ralph Camp and Betty Camp and my big brother Dan Camp. Jenny Zidel Brooks is one stand out childhood friendships, along with Erika Gieschen Bertling, Stephanie, Beth, and many others. My life has never been the same since Susan Vickery Rikard and her entire family entered my heart back in high school! The Master's College is where I met Rick Saake, the love of my life, and so many dear friends! Debbie Gruelle Bridwell, Sandra Grafe Glahn, Kathe Homan Wunnenberg, Leslie Snodgrass and Julie Long Donahue (and each of their books or ministries, that led to personal friendships) saw me through an incredibly tough decade of infertility, miscarriage and adoption losses.
Hannah's Prayer ( www.Hannah.org ) played a daily anchor roll in my life for two decades, my "everything I learned in life I learned in Kindergarten" type go-to resource for understanding about infertility, loss, the adoption journey, then into childbirth and parenting, to world news,

 beauty tips, marriage advise, cooking help and so much more, even challenging my thinking on some wider theological issues. Most of the friendships I now maintain are still somehow linked to HP!!! I am no longer able to keep up with the speed and volume of daily interaction with thousands of women at a time, but am so very blessed to have similar type friendship through a few groups here on FB, especially my Hope House girls and Soul Sisters (Joni and Friends marriage retreat spin off group).
At the same time Hannah's Prayer was just beginning, I was befriended byLisa Copen of her fledgling chronic illness support ministry, Rest Ministries. While we have yet to meet in person (YET!) we have walked nearly every step of life together through personal chronic (and often addition acute, as well) illness, ministry growth, writing, growing our families (we have babies born 1 DAY apart!), learning social media, employment changes, homeschooling and so much more!!! Andrea Whittemore-Goad is my face-to-face, local friend who "gets" my health journey and faith in Jesus Christ, like no other.
My children Noel, Joshua, Joel, Hannah, Princess R. and J Bear are each so dear, my heart!

Jan Frank (author of A Graceful Waiting, and got me in the door with my publisher), NavPress and my editor Rachelle Gardner, Literary Agent, all must make my thankful list, as Hannah's Hope by Jennifer Saake was such a key landmark in my life! (And we never would have gotten there at all if not for Kathe's challenge!)
Jeanette Hanscome and the Reno Christian Writers (RCW) gang!
My many stroke doctors, nurses, therapists such as Rachel Dawson Brown, and support groups and buddies, such as Kendra (from from Hannah's Prayer days, young homeschooling moms together, then stroked, and SURVIVED, less than 6 months apart).
If your name isn't here, it is not meaning you aren't dear to me. Facebook will only let me tag so many AND my memory is bad, so here were ONLY are a few highlights!

World A-spinnin' So Fast!

It's been a busy birthday month at our house. Our oldest turned 14 a few days before Christmas (my mom had a birthday and kidney stone emergency room trip a few days before that), my mom had surgery in early January (yes, I just had 3 emergency room trips and the same emergency surgery in November and earlier in December!), then our Little Bear turned 8 last week and his sister turned 11 this weekend.

Now we seem to be passing a tummy bug around the family. I just rescheduled today's MRI for Valentine's Day because I told them they don't want me bringing these germs to their office. Thankfully, this just seems to be a 12-24 hour thing, so I am hopeful that tomorrow will remain as currently scheduled. (One can dream anyway, right?) So much for my neurologist's warning to avoid illness at all costs because it might set me back so hard. :(

Looking back through the past few months of posts, the most widely read one has been my thoughts on Christian women and head coverings. Our infertility and pregnancy / adoption loss story, The Family That God Built, also has had a bit of traffic (though not as much as I expected for such an amazing, shout-it-from-the-rooftops God story)! My one word for 2014 seemed to get a few people thinking. My 2 year, 3 month stroke update has had a few reads but not many comments. I love comments! *hint - hint* ;)

The main reason I'm posting today is to tell you about an exciting Facebook group Shelly Hendricks and I get to host today through this April. We feel so blessed to have been members of various (in)courager groups (an outreach of DaySpring) over the past months (that's pretty much how we met, or at least how a brief acquaintance and casual interaction turned into deep friendship). This season we can't wait to have you join us in community and belonging and friendship as well! Come on over and be encouraged.

Whether your need is a small group of women seeking God through chronic illness. Shelly and I be thrilled to welcome you into the HOPE group, but maybe you would feel more comfortable in any of the other small families such as infertility, adoption, special needs, any stage of motherhood (including prodigal and adult children as well as brand new and all stages in between), singleness, marriage, professional, stay-at-home, structured Bible study, just hang out, teachers (at home or in a classroom), writers, artists and more! Basically, if you are a woman, with an interest in knowing God more, there is a group for you! My biggest problem was choosing just one part of my life to focus on right now, as there are so many, many amazing choices!

The online support culminates the last weekend of April with a chance (no one will twist your arm to try to make you attend, but you may realize you really want to by then!) to attend a local get together of the (in)RealLife conference, thousands of women, around the globe, gathering 2, 3, 10, 12 at a time, and getting to watch a few short videos with other local Christian woman from all walks of life. Tearing down the denominational, social and other barriers that keep us apart and simply learning to love one another.

We need the blessing of you in community with us. And even if you don't know it yet, even if you are an introverted personality and the idea of sharing in someone else's journey terrifies or intimidates you and you can't imagine (*gasp*) sharing any piece of your own heart, you need community more than you realize. Please at least give us a try. We don't bite (too hard, anyway ;) ), I promise!

Taking an abrupt turn in subject matter, may I bother you once again to ask for your support? I have been nominated as a WEGO  Health Activist (a pretty big deal, actually) and am humbled and thrilled by the initial nomination. However, they are asking for additional endorsements (think website "votes") of my nomination. You may vote daily. The highest three number of endorsements in each category are then considered for final winner selection, so any further progress I make is up to you all here. To vote, go to https://awards.wegohealth.com/nominees/jenni-767 then down arrow to the purple "endorse" button on the right, below my picture. Click the button. They may ask for your email address and that will be it. You may come again tomorrow (and the day after that, and the day after that...) if you really want to help my numbers. :) Thanks so much! You are also welcome to click on the blue button on the left side of the screen if you want to leave a comment about your reason for nomination.

Communities and Comments

Today's #NHBPM prompt asks me to share advice for dealing with negative feedback in my community.

 

I've been blessed by surprisingly little negative feedback over the years, so I don't know that I have much advice to offer. The one gem I can pass on, isn't even original with me. It is basically, "This is my blog, so if you don't have anything nice to say and we can't resolve legitimate concerns, I still have the power of veto here if you choose just be be ugly or unreasonable in comments." This one piece of advice has been very freeing for me, to realize that freedom of speech does not prevent me from freedom of moderation over my own comments. Censorship is still not something I take lightly or use with abandon, but if a public confrontation cannot be resolved, I'm not tied to continuing to publicly leave derogatory, attacking, or offensive replies live on my own website.

Since I don't have much else useful to offer on the topic, I thought I would take this opportunity to introduce you to some healing communities, both "mine" and others.

For infertility and loss at any time from conception through early infancy, there is a message board forum I helped launch years ago. Hannah's Prayer has far outgrown me and I can claim little ownership or input any more, but it will always hold a very special place in my heart. It is so much more than a "fertility forum" and really is the first resource I turn to for parenting after infertility resources, or just about any information in life, and really is my first source of breaking world news, shared from an international perspective. This world-wide community of Christian sisterhood is amazing and usually new posts have replies within minutes, day or night. It is well-worth you time investment of a few hours or days to get your (simple) registration approved to gain access! I feel like I need a t-shirt that reads, "Everything I've learned in life I've learned from my HP sisters."

I know it isn't exclusively infertility related ,and I haven't used the resource nearly as much as I could, but I feel I should give an "honorable mention" shout out to HysterSisters here, for women contemplating or undergoing hysterectomy. Another honorable mention is SoulCysters for women with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCO). Endometriosis Support should receive a shout out too. Be Not Afraid is the first place I direct parents when they face the negative prenatal diagnosis of a child. And if someone is threatening to miscarry or unsure about medical prognosis in early pregnancy, I direct them to Misdiagnosed Miscarriage for equal doses of hope and medical realism. My own book on infertility also has a blog at Hannah's Hope: Seeking God's Heart in the Midst of Infertility, Miscarriage & Adoption Loss.

For chronic pain or illness (I have yet to find a great resource specific to ME/CFS. Anyone know of one?) my go to resource is Rest Ministries. I had no hand in the formation of this organization, but see founder, Lisa Copen, as a dear friend as we have been through the growing pains of starting young internet ministries together. The primary difference is that Lisa has maintained nearly sole leadership and day-to-day management of RM, while I have been blessed to pass daily operations of HP off to a fantastic Board of Directors. I honestly don't know how Lisa does what she does, all the while battling her own physical challenges as well as family management and creating amazing ministry resources, from blog posts, to videos, to forums, to social media participation. My own offerings to this community are two manuscripts in progress, Harvesting Hope from Heartache and Given Me a Thorn.


A stroke community I have recently found to be helpful is StrokeNet. I have only been attending there a couple of weeks, so far, so I can't tell you much about history or background yet, but so far I have really appreciated the stories and understanding found there. I am also sharing my unfolding stroke journey (and hope to eventually also write a book under the same title) at Stroke of Grace.


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Today I am thankful for the internet and the ability to connect with thousands of folks facing similar struggles, people I would never meet off line! Does anyone have a copy of the poem about "my best friends live in my computer"? I would like to post that here!

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First Published Book: Hannah's Hope : Seeking God's Heart in the Midst of Infertility, Miscarriage, and Adoption Loss

Book-in-progress on drawing on the fruit of the Spirit in times of trial: Harvesting Hope from Heartache

Next book-in-progress: 6 strokes at age 39, Stroke of Grace

Future manuscript in the plans: Given Me a Thorn, the apostle Paul's story as applicable to living with chronic illness

Make a Differnce!

Did you know that 30 seconds of your time could make a $500,000 difference? If you have a Facebook account (or know someone who does, or you are considering getting one), please keep reading! If you followed this blog very long at all, you've heard me mention the Whittemore Peterson Institute many times. I am so very thankful for this research organization and the hope they bring to not only me personally, but to millions with M.E., CFS, Fibromyalgia, Lyme disease, Gulf War Illness, a-typical MS, Autism, and more.

The Whittemore Peterson Institute (WPI) is 1 out of 100 charities that won a $25,000.00 grant during the first round of Chase Community Giving. Now, WPI is competing for a $500,000.00 grant, and you can help! Please cast your vote, ask your Facebook friends to vote, and spread the word about the important work of WPI. If you have a Facebook account, please cast your vote for WPI by following the instructions below through May 25th at 9 pm PST. (Just under 4 days left!)

STEP-BY-STEP Instructions:
1. From your Facebook page, go to Chase Community Giving: http://www.facebook.com/ChaseCommunityGiving.

2. "Like" Chase Community Giving by clicking on the "Like" button.

3. Now search for Whittemore Peterson Institute for Neuro-Immune Disease.

4. Cast your vote for WPI by clicking the "Vote Now!" button.

5. Please remember our neuro-immune disease community and share in the Love and Giving by voting for other organizations who speak to your heart -- you can vote for up to 5 organizations per Facebook account.

CHASE COMMUNITY GIVING: BIG IDEA

The Whittemore Peterson Institute for Neuro-Immune Disease (WPI) was created to answer a critical need for discovery and medical treatments for those with serious illnesses that impact the body and the brain. These often debilitating and life-long diseases, including M.E., CFS, fibromyalgia, post Lyme disease, GWI and autism, have too few medical solutions. WPI continues to make significant strides through the work of our innovative research program.

Translating novel research into effective patient treatments for millions around the world will begin with the opening of our 10,000 sq. ft. medical facility. Here we can engage in revealing clinical trials and provide on site care to those who are unable to afford care. We require funding for initial expenses and to establish a patient fund. WPI’s commitment to discovery has already inspired much hope worldwide. Now it is time to put hope into action by offering meaningful patient care to these under-served populations.

http://www.wpinstitute.org/help/index.html#chasegiving

Cancer and Chronic Fatigue

I recently posted about the potential link between autism and CFS. Today I wanted to mention the immunological similarities between cancer and CFS. It was this shared abnormality in ribonuclease (RNase) L in CFS and in prostate cancer patients that sent researchers actively looking for XMRV in CFS after finding it in a subclass of prostate cancer patients. It is my understanding that there is a notably higher cancer rate among CFS patients than in the general population and perhaps this sheds some light on the reason.

A very interesting lecture (about 15 minutes) about XMRV and specifically prostate cancer (but also mentions CFS several times) is found here.

Not sure what I'm talking about? Check out my post on What Is CFS? :) If you or someone you love is facing cancer (with, or without CFS), here are some cancer support links that may offer a measure of comfort.