Inspiration

inspiration

Inspiration | My Sunday Snapshot #28

Hi, welcome to My Sunday Snapshot 28! Today’s image did not materialize until just this morning. Hence, my later than usual post time. I first need to explain the conversation I had with Kevin last evening. Out of the blue, he asked, ‘Would you want to go to 8 O’Clock church tomorrow?‘. Sure!

So this morning while selecting the clothes to wear, I was going thru my closet. Starting at one end, I looked at each of my shirts. As I was nearing the end, I had found THE one. It reminded me of my Aunt Phyllis.

Aunt Phyllis
Adam and Aunt Phyllis

Here I am wearing my Auntie P inspired shirt!

inspiration

The sermon was just what I needed to hear. It was like the Good Lord knew I was going to be there. 🙂

My day is filled with love.

Have a wonderful week!

Take Care. Best wishes, Debra
Gma’s photo

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my Sunday snapshot
Pictures can produce so many different emotions and feelings. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words! Share your fun and interesting image from the past week.

My Sunday Snapshot 28

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Men’s Mental Illness

men's mental illness

Men’s Mental Illness

Hi, welcome to Gma’sPhoto! This post was inspired by our trip to St. Joseph, MO for our summer party fireworks purchase. On our drive, we always stop into one particular Chinese restaurant. It was here, in May 2011 our journey with men’s mental illness began. I call it our dark days.

Thank God, I am being totally sincere. Not at all saying HIS name in vain. We are out of the dark (as long as our son is taking his meds). Occasionally, there may be a cloudy day, metaphorically. For this I am very grateful.

I want to share our experience as parents of a young male adult child at his onset of mental illness. I had felt like I missed something when he was growing up. The what if’s consumed me. This is the beginning of our story, Kevin and Debra’s story.

men's mental illness
One of my favorite photos with me and Adam.

Telling the story now, I have the hindsight. Just wish what I know now, I had known earlier when Adam was still in middle and high school. Adam tended to be more emotional than our daughter. While Adam was in his senior year in high school he worked on the senior slide show for the class graduation. Adam and a couple other guys were part of the group. One of Adam’s comments was that this other kid was getting all the credit. He mentioned it several different times. According to Adam, Adam was doing most of the work. Okay, nothing too unordinary right? On with my story.

Graduation comes and goes. Summertime is here. Adam was getting nose bleeds. Not too uncommon, especially when he experiences allergies. He goes off to college. All is going great. His grades are better than when he was in high school. He was able to focus on his interest, arts. First year of college was fabulous. Summer rolled around. Adam wanted to live in Lawrence for the summer. Grandma and Grandpa said it was okay that he stay with them, with conditions. Those conditions were he could not smoke, do drugs and stay out late. No problem.

Age of onset of mental disorders. Roughly half of all lifetime mental disorders in most studies start by the mid-teens and three quarters by the mid-20s. Later onsets are mostly secondary conditions. Severe disorders are typically preceded by less severe disorders that are seldom brought to clinical attention.”

source one

Our son was graduating from community college May 2011. We were proud, are still proud parents. We invited family to attend the ceremony and after for dinner to celebrate. Kevin and I had drove North to Hiawatha where Adam attended community college. When we got there, Adam was no where to be found. One of his roommates said he had already left. We were confused. We called Adam and he said he did not want to go to graduation. He was driving back to Lawrence to my parents home where he was going to stay for the summer.

We called Kevin’s parents, Kevin’s sister and her husband, our daughter and her family. My parents already knew so we did not need to call them. Luckily no one else drove the whole way to the graduation. We had them meet us at the Chinese resturaunt. What an evening.

During the summer Adam became more paranoid. My parents had Adam go to the doctor office for drug tests, on more than one occasion. Each were random. Every time the tests would come back negative. One night Adam’s behavior was such that my parents called the police. Adam was taken to the hospital. Erika had gone to the hospital to be with Adam. Upon his release from hospital, Kevin and I had to acknowledge we would be responsible for Adam and that he would be in our care. This is when we observed his behaviors we only heard of from my parents.

Adam had many different behaviors. More than I can recall. Just that his behavior was not right. Adam did tell us he had been taking drugs and knew which ones helped him to concentrate and stay focused. Adam’s doctor is the same doctor I went to and the one my parents went to. This was a major factor in the help we received for Adam. Kevin and I went to this doctor. The doctor said drugs was not the concern at this time, it was his mental state. A few recommendations for the best doctor for Adam were given to us.

Adam began his treatment. I had previously sought legal advice about guardianship. The attorney asked if we had doctor statement that this would be in Adam’s best interest. At this time we did not have this and the attorney said it would be very hard to get guardianship granted.

Eventually, Adam had a ‘team’ that consisted of his Case Worker and therapist. Adam made a few poor decisions that resulted in his therapist to refer Adam to a psychologist. The psychologist (Dr.J) did an intensive session with Adam and ultimately she provided a letter stating it would be in Adam’s best interest to have a guardian. Once we had her letter, the family doctor also wrote a letter supporting the guardianship. Adam’s therapist wrote her letter supporting guardianship. The psychologist (Dr.E) who prescribes Adam’s medicines wrote his supporting letter. With the four letters Kevin and I hired a family law attorney. We are now Adam’s Co-conservator, Co-Guardians.

This story is not complete, however this is where I will end my post. Eventually I will return with more of the story. I wanted to share in case someone else may be going through a similar struggle. If so and you have questions, I would be willing to go more in depth with you in a one to one conversation. Send me a message using my contact form.

Take Care. Best wishes, Debra
Gma’s photo

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My Sunday Snapshot #2

front of sign my Sunday snapshot #2

My Sunday Snapshot #2

Hi, this week my Sunday Snapshot shot was provided after church services. I did not think of anything until I got into my car to leave. It was then that I caught sight of it and then laughed!!

The above image is the welcome sign to the church. This is not an uncommon sign for most businesses and churches to have, right?! Well, then when I left it was when I saw the backside.

back sign my Sunday snapshot #2
Backside of sign as you are leaving the parking lot.

Have a wonderful week!

WW Update:
Since Start Date; -27.4lbs

Take Care. Best wishes, Debra
Gma’s photo

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my Sunday snapshot Pictures can produce so many different emotions and feelings. As they say, an image is worth a thousand words! Share your fun and interesting image from the past week.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter


Coincidence or Divine Intervention?

coincidence or divine intervention

Is it coincidence or divine intervention?

Hi, on Sunday I made good on finding a good Bible based church and Bible study. This is my #50 of my 101 in 1001 goals. I personally do not believe in coincidences. Let me explain why.

During my cancer journey, so many coincidences happened at just the right time. Coincidence 1: Commercial construction had slowed down. Kevin had been laid off from work. He had just returned to work and three weeks later I was diagnosed with cancer.

Coincidence 2: With the lack of work prior, Kevin did not have his 700 hours in to qualify for his insurance premiums to be paid. We had to pay the premium out of pocket for 2 months, still less than the chemo I was getting each month. There was plenty of overtime work for Kevin to reach the 700 hours.

Our family went thru a dark time. It was during this time more coincidences happened. Our son was self medicating. The doctor said it was not a concern of being addicted to ‘drugs’ rather a mental issue.

Coincidence 3: Adam had the same therapist and case manager for 2 years (our darkest). Since then, he has had new therapists about every 6 months. Same with the case managers.

The featured image above was taken at the church I went to this past week. Part of my #50 of my 101 in 1001, attend Bible study. A new church for me. When I walked in, I actually knew several of the members. I felt immediately welcomed, like I was meant to be there.

These were the biggest coincidences with so many more that I have experienced. Too many to ‘not’ believe in God.

For this reason, I say I experienced divine intervention.

WW Update:
Since Start Date; -27.2 lbs

Take Care. Best wishes, Debra
Gma’s photo

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Bible Study | #50 of 101 in 1001

bible study

Bible Study | #50 of 101 in 1001

Hi, Happy New Year to you!! My New Year’s resolution is not the typical ‘need to loose some weight’, which I have done in previous years. This year I have chosen to strengthen my Faith. Number 50 on my 101 in 1001 is to go to church once a week.

I had created this 101 in 1001 list back in February 2023. Since doing so, I have decided to tweak my going to church once a week to going to Bible study once a week. Have you heard of Joel Osteen? Some people like him and other’s not so much. My father is one who is with the not so much group. That can be a different story! 🙂 Today is about how I decided to strengthen my Faith.

#50 goal of going to church every Sunday was really on my mind for the whole month of December. It was on one Sunday that Joel Osteen’s program came onto the TV I had been watching. Joel, in my opinion, is an excellent presenter. I enjoy his uplifting words. At the end of his program he says to get into a good Bible based church. What I heard, Bible study. That is when I decided to change the going to church to bible study (Sunday School).

As I was preparing for my ‘Bible study’ group, I realized the only Bible I had was this beautiful, huge Bible my husband’s brother and his wife gave to me and Kevin as a wedding gift. I was on a mission :), find a Bible!!

I just didn’t realize how many different Bibles there are. One recommendation I would like to share, go to a Christian book store when you are searching for your Bible. At the store, you can actually compare the verses in one book to another. Genesis 9:4,5 was the one I used for comparisons. I bought two of mine from Amazon. It took 5 purchases before I found the one for me. Consider the print size and the age group. One suggestion for the retail marketers, change the age 6-12 to beginner. One of my preferred Bible that I have, is the kids’ version and it would be nice if it said beginner. And, I had to literally go to the kids’ section to find it.

This Bible needed to be more of a personal size book. I had gone to the Christian store, Mardel. There, the sales lady, assisted me with selecting the version I was more comfortable reading and understanding. I had selected the NKJV, New King James. It was my second visit to the Christian store that I had gone over to the kids’ section for the right Bible for me 🙂

Later, I was in Wal-Mart and happened to check their book section. And guess what, they sell Bible’s too! They had a super sized Bible, the font was much bigger. All the better for me to see! So I bought it. Well, later I was speaking with a friend and she was telling me she had gotten her (now grown) boys a children Bible and that is what she takes to her Bible study group. As you may have already thought, yes- I bought a kids’ Bible too 🙂

For anyone who is just beginning to read the Bible, I recommend the kids’ version. In the below image it shows what resources the kids’ book provides. The super size Bible is good too. As I began reading the Bible, there have been so many words I need help with. Webster wasn’t cutting it for me. This is when I ordered the Student Bible Dictionary.

I must say, I am eager to begin my studies! 🙂

bible study

In summary, the Christian book store is a one stop shop. Plan on spending a long time in the store. Look at more than one Bible version. There are large print, comfort print, and the age level options to consider. A reference book should be included for studying. Bible book tabs are good too.

bible book tabs

WW Update:
Since Start Date; -28.6 lbs

Take Care. Best wishes, Debra
Gma’s photo

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