That Family

{I wrote this at the beginning of October but for some reason never published it. A lot of this has quieted down since then, but there are still headlines about them often enough that I decided it's still relevant to post now.}


Are we done with the Duggars yet? Because this whole thing is exhausting. I'm tired of hearing about them, I'm tired of seeing the headlines. Please please let it just go away already. I have seen many wild opinions about all of this, from unquestioned support to complete hatred. The one strong opinion I have about this is that while many people are too quick to judge, many others are too quick to defend.

I'm a Christian, so I get the desire that other Christians have to defend the Duggars. We don't like when the media/public/internet trolls pick on any of our Christian family. But here's the thing. It is NOT OUR JOB to defend the Duggars. Just like everyone else who only has a dim picture of what really happened, we have no business telling others that they should stop picking on them and give them back their TV show. Like it or not, unfair or not, hateful or not, this family chose to become a reality TV family. Doing so comes with the whole enchilada of scrutiny about how you live your lives and raise your many kids. And I heart Michelle Duggar, don't get me wrong, but her doe-eyed innocence of what the outside world is really like is not my problem. This is a harsh way to learn that the world outside of your bubble has always thought you were fruitcakes, and now thinks you are terrible people.

I have no idea if Jim Bob and Michelle handled the situation correctly. I have no idea how I would have handled it were I in their situation. People always think they would do the right thing but many have never had to make a hard choice themselves. I'm by no means giving them a pass; they started filming their TV show within a few years of Josh's confession, and it doesn't seem like they gave any consideration that this could eventually come out. Why they chose to do this show is a mystery to me, because if they wanted to use it as a platform for the Gospel, they might want to actually mention Jesus on the show once in a while. I'm just saying.

As with any negative event in our own lives, God is no doubt using this to draw the Duggars closer to Him as they go through a very public refining process. My prayer is simply that God's will would be done in this family.

IEP once again

E's IEP meeting went very well. I was super nervous, as I always am going into these, but I really started to lose my nerve when E's therapist texted and said she would have to join the meeting via phone as she was sick in bed with a fever. And of course my husband went back to day shift this week, so he couldn't attend either. I put out my DefCon 5 prayer alert on Facebook and man my people rocked it. I got so many replies with prayers and support, and then private messages and texts and phone calls. This is what Christian community is about, and I definitely felt every word of prayer that was spoken.

The requests we made for better assistive technology for E's dysgraphia got a very positive response. It's still in the red-tape-paperwork-process but they've already gotten him a loaner Chromebook that he's thrilled about.  We also were in disagreement with the school psychologist & speech therapist who don't believe he needs speech pragmatics therapy. I think I made a solid case for why he needs this and why the evaluation they did was faulty, and the E's therapist backed me up on this.

In the meantime, I dropped off E's application to attend our local tech school (next year). I'm praying that he gets in; everyone I've talked to about this believes this would be the best environment for him. When I took him to the open house he LOVED it and was fascinated by all of the computer class options they offer. I love that tech school has come so far from when I was back in high school, and the stigma of it is gone. There's a limited number of seats that our own school district is willing to sponsor, and I'm concerned that his grades will hinder his chances. It's definitely in God's hands!

A blog about a blog

Have you heard of Study With Friends? It's a great ministry with free resources, such as printables for Bible studies, along with podcasts you can learn so much from. I've been downloading the various series to listen to on my walks and I can't get enough of them.  So imagine the giant stroke to my ego honor that it was when I was invited to join the team by writing for their blog. Cool, right? (There's no punchline, it really is cool.) Hope you like it!

Study With Friends: Full Armor

They put up a fancy little blurb about me with a nice picture on their Meet the Friends page. I wanted to use this picture but they picked the other one for some reason. #doctrinaldifferences

I have E's IEP meeting this afternoon and I'm nervous about it, so naturally I'm thinking about books instead.

57. Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince

58. AD: 33 by Ted Dekker. I have a mixed review of this one. I liked it, but like the first book, there are long stream of consciousness monologues where the protagonist explores her feelings, and the plot stalls. This happens often, and seems to be the deus ex machina of Dekker's books anymore. There's no action that resolves problems so much as there is spiritual change. Not that this isn't how God often works in our lives, but for fiction it's a bit dry.

59. 11/22/63 by Stephen King. King is a master and this doesn't disappoint. Very long book but an incredible story that brought me to tears. The ending has stayed with me for days.

60. Just started The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith and enjoying it so far.