The best place to end ...

 It has been an emotional rollercoaster the last 12 years and this I believe will be one of my, if not THE, last post here about Sammi! Thank you so much for all the love, prayers, shoulders to cry on and just listening to my rants and raves for 12 (good grief TWELVE!!) years. it just hit me that our Sammi was 12 when this happened and he is now 24, so I have been writing about our journey with brain injury for half of our sons life. what a perfect way to come full circle and end this part of his story here! 

Our Sam was in the Adult and Teen Challenge  (ATC) Program for a year, where he worked hard to overcome his addictions and build a new relationship with our Lord! It was a hard fought year at times and it was never boring! We not only got to see our son grow and flourish, we grew our own hearts as we met and added many more to our family!  we got to know and become family to so many of the students in the program (both the mens centre and the women's in Brandon). We made wonderful friends with some of the staff at ATC. 

As Sam got closer to finishing the program he had many moments of reflection and 'this is how its going to go' moments ... BUT GOD... and when God steps in to clear your thoughts, step back! 

Sam lived with us for a while once he got out of the program (he finished in April), he found an amazing job in Crystal City - welding even! And looked for a place there and eventually found one nearby his job! He works for a godly company that isn't scared to say it or show it! And we all couldn't be happier about it! Shortly after Sam started he wound up with 6 weeks off after a double hernia surgery - and since Dennis and I were moved into our motorhome already we moved to Crystal City (where Sam was living in  his brothers camper trailer) to help him during his recovery. 

During his time with this company, Samuel made the decision to follow Jesus and be baptized, so here is where I will leave the blog - beginning with what we called Samuels second birthday, since we got to se him relearn how to do everything all over again to his new BIRTHday and new life with Christ! His baptism, where all he needs to learn and do now is to trust, obey and follow His Saviour! 

Thank You Abba for being a Father who cares about ALL the things in our lives; the big, the small, the pretty, the ugly, the ups and downs... ALL of the things! Thank You Papa for being faithful to follow this tragedy to rejoicing, to go from despair to joy, from broken to healed ...Thank You. Thank You. Thank You. I know there are still miles to go but he is now going those miles with You. I pray he will continue on this road with You, Jesus, and as he shares his story, I pray that it is ONLY YOU that people see in his miracles! And that they rejoice.

Thank You Father. For it all, because I had to lean and rely on You as well and I know I could have done a better job at that and so many other things, but without You it would have been an even wilder ride I am sure. Its all because of You. Al this I pray and rejoice and praise in YOUR name! Amen

 Sammi's testimony!                                 

 Sammi's baptism!

I will continue post as I will about my daddy. He is still in the care home and our visits are few and far between right now due to covid and changing rules it seems all the time! My concern with him is what he actually retains mentally. Does he realize I am not there as much? As Dennis and I prepare to for our 6 months in Mexico with YWAM will he notice I am not there? He is getting more and more quiet when we see him, he aspirates more and more too it seems (which is "normal" for him). 

If you are interested in following Dennis and I on our God adventure to Mazatlan Mexico with YWAM (Youth with a Mission) you can check out our new blog/website at God, the Ginters and You  and you can subscribe to updates there too! 

Thank you for being a part of this great journey of Brain Injury with me, Sam, my Daddy and the rest of our family! We truly did and do appreciate it all! 

Until next time...

Where does the time go!?

It is so hard to believe that yet another summer has almost come and gone.  NOt only has the summer been flying by but so has life  and by life I mean kids growing up! Joshua graduated this June -- sigh. (I am feeling so old some days!) AND he has moved out. ok, he moved into our old house across the road but still, he is not living in our home anymore (although we DO see him more now than when he lived with us -- go figure...) 

Josh receiving his diploma!❤

Proud papa and mama! 

Our graduate and his beautiful girlfriend Dana! {we heart her}

Official "grad pic" He looks like one of The Duckmen! :)

Another Brain Injury Awareness campaign is also {almost} done too..... Well what I mean is I am not mailing out piles of envelopes every week now, but I do still get a trickle of emails with requests for them. I have about 100 left and hope to continue sending the bracelets out until they are all gone! 

This year I had one goal for myself with regards to the bracelets and that was to send some to a country I had not sent to last year! Then one morning in July I received an email with a request for some, so I replied back to please send me their mailing address and low and behold it was somewhere I hadn’t sent any bracelets! MOSCOW, RUSSIA!!!  I was so excited and that prompted me to map out everywhere I had sent bracelets in total! I discovered that I had sent bracelets to 5 provinces in Canada, 42 states in the USA and 6 countries in total!!

 I was shocked!  I still AM shocked! 

That was almost 1500 bracelets out in the world! 

So now I need to work on a goal for next year -- maybe it should be to deliver some bracelets in person ... {grin}

The summer has gone by so quick and we have been so busy with the farm and the kids that it is hard to remember all that has happened.

One big surprise for Dennis and I was in July when we went to Dauphin Bible Camp (where Isaac was working as a work hand) to see one of the teens from our church be baptized). After church that Sunday, there was a baptism planned for 4 people and there ended up being 13 in total when it was over and one of those 13 was our boy Isaac! He felt lead to be baptized as he was walking up to the pool and in his testimony he told how he was wanting to be baptized by our minister Pastor Dean (who moved to Alberta a few years ago). He told how while he was walking up he felt that God spoke to him telling him that it didn’t matter WHO did the baptizing, it was WHO he was being baptized thru in the NAME OF.

We were {and still are} so proud of him! 

Isaac giving his testimony ... ❤

Declaring he has accepted Jesus

Hold yer breath! :D

Born again!! ❤❤ so proud of him! 

It was a big step and we noticed a huge difference in him when he came home that day and while he was at home for the week and a half before heading back to camp for Cabin Leader Training (CLT).  All he could talk about was what he had learned, read and saw, other kids that were there and what they had/have learned! He read the book of Revelation (not my first choice of books in the Bible to read but it is so Isaac! :) ) He was talking about next year and working at camp for the summer already too! He was so excited about working with kids and going back.

We pick up the boys next week from camp and this weekend Hannah heads up for teen camp. Then next week everyone is home and we are getting back into regular life routine and getting ready for ... Ugh... Winter 

This fall school season will see Sam in grade 12 (not sure if he is going to do an entire year as he CAN be done after the first semester), Isaac in grade 11 and Hannah in grade 9. SInce Joshua has now graduated  and is well and settled in our ‘old  house’ across the road AND working full time but also plans on going to get his Class 1 Drivers License for trucking. 

Dennis and I are busy with the farm and life and I just signed myself up for some night courses in photography at the local college. So this winter I will have something to keep me busy now that I am not running back and forth to Winnipeg with appointments. 

As of July Sam is2 years seizure free and this  August he will be one year without medication and back to his ‘normal’ self. I say ‘normal’ as we still have issues with BI moments and then there are those darn hormones that like to throw in monkey wrenches where we don’t expect OR want them! Lol But then if life were too normal, who would want it!?