Monday, April 22, 2013

they're finally here!!


Well our 1500 beautiful Brain Injury bracelets have landed!!! Joshua picked them up this weekend for me and brought them home last night! Now onto the fun part! 
If you want a bracelet (or a few to share) just email me at: braininjuryadvocate@gmail.com
with your mailing address and I will send them along to you! The bracelets are free but if you wish to make a donation to them that is up to you! You can also donate to YOUR local brain injury association! All I ask is if you take some please take some pictures of yourself (and others if applicable) wearing the bracelet - you can either email me the pictures or friend me on FB and tag me in the pic! I will add it to our FB page Canadians with Traumatic Brain Injuries so that survivors and caregivers can feel the love! (I would love to share where you are from also!)  I only order 1500 this year because I changed the bracelets to painted debossed ones so that increased the price a bit on the ordering end. I have a few left from last year (50 or so) that are the all green with Aquired Brain Injury on them if anyone would like one of those... 
Well I am off to spread a bit of awareness and share my  Monday smiles with people!! 


Saturday, April 20, 2013

so excited!!!!!


I hope to have some exciting news to share tomorrow!!! So please stay tuned!


Thursday, April 18, 2013

An inspiration to me...

Now a while back when Duck Dynasty started on A&E I saw it advertised and thot 'what a weird show! Nope I wont watch it!' ...

Famous last words.. of well... yes a fool!

 I dont remember how I came to watch the show but I do remember the impact it made on me as I watched Phil Robertson talk, Willie, Jase, Korie and Miss Kay interact. I was in love with a family that was so much like our own in so many ways and yet .... not.
Then came the kicker from the show that had me hooked from the start of the last scene: this beautiful, fun loving family sitting down to dinner together, hats coming off, heads bowing and Phil saying not only grace but a heartfelt, jaw dropping, simple thanks to the Lord that brougth tears to my eyes. I was in awe!

We have started watching Duck Dynasty (and now that we have found where to find Duck Commander) as a family. Our entire family are fans of the Robertsons and we all have our "you remind me of..." moments while we watch!
I love the way they work together, support each other and work hard to make thier faith and family first in their lives. But there are days where I just want to sit and cry as I watch an episode (or 3- thanks to the PVR! :) ) I wish our kids could appreciate their faith and family a little more. Now without saying any names we have 2 that seem to be doing their best to do the opposite of everything we have taught them and then the other 2 that seem to be doing well with taking advise, talking thru problems and walking in faith. We have had one child tell me that they don't believe and my response was "it jaust makes me pray harder and more for you". There is a lack of respect towards our rules and sometimes our beliefs from the 2 that are seeming to be walking away from us.
We are in family counselling and Josh doesnt come to ANY meetings- he is 18 (almost 19) and doesnt need or want any help... so what do you do?
The other is rude in the meetings: ignoring the counsellors questions, turning to face walls, blaming everyone for their problems instead of looking at their own life choices. This attitude follows us home with expectations that everything is 'owed' to this child because they have gotten the wrong end of the stick with life. (or so it seems like that is the reasons for their behaviour) This child also wants to move into Foster care BUT only if they can move and live where THEY want. Even the counsellor AND their youth counsellor said that is not the way it works.

I know every family has its moments and its different characters that all make up the family unit but how do you deal with the family as a whole when 1 or 2 dont want to be part of this family!? It is so confusing how 4 kids raised in one house by the same parents will come to such totally different ends of the spectrum! Dennis and I KNOW we must have been doing something right somewhere at sometime when we have 2 that are on that faith and family path and working to stay there!

I am almost finished reading Willie and Korie's book 'The Duck Dynasty Family' and have really enjoyed it. But again there have been a few moments of tears with family stories and the closeness of them all.

Dennis and I have always worked to keep our family  close and unfortunately somewhere we dropped the ball but we will continue to work hard to keep our family together. We sometimes talk about how when you think an accident like we have all survived, you would think it should bring ya'll closer together.... apparently not in our case. It is really sad because BEFORE the accident we were a close, tight knit family like the Robertsons.

I would love for our Ginter family to meet the Robertson family in person.  I know all our members would love it! And maybe there would be a residual effect of meeting them to know that there ARE other families that love being a family...