My prayers for Caleb

Here is my special boy, Caleb. Many of you know him...he has the most contagious laugh ever. He has big, grape cheeks when he smiles. He is such a giver and loves to be around people. As many of you also know, Caleb was diagnosed as mentally challenged when he was almost six. He had been in speech therapy for three years and we knew that he was severely learning delayed. When the final diagnosis came in we weren't shocked...perhaps, because we live with him and see his difficulties. We see him struggle to get dressed and put a jacket on. We see that he doesn't know direction, like behind and in front of. We seem him not able to process basic commands and we see him trying to understand basic boyhood stuff.

This past fall, at the counsel of our pastor, we put Caleb in school. He was placed in a wonderful ESE class with a few students, and then for an hour a day he went into my best friend's (Jessica) mainstream kindergarten classroom for an hour. A lot of you know that we home school and always planned on homeschooling all of our kids. It is our heart and conviction to do this. But the day we sat down with our pastor, we realized that we needed to put him in school for us, not for Caleb. After working with a mentally challenged child for over five years, I was mentally and emotionally exhausted. It is a daily struggle and it has had twists and turns over the past few years. Our pastor was concerned that we were so exhausted that it would affect our marriage and our other kids. So after a lot of hesitation and prayer, we put him in Edgewater Elementary in November 2007. And what a blessing it was. I received a break that I didn't know that I needed...I felt refreshed and was able to dive into the word and get a new faith for Caleb. I couldn't have done that with all the chaos that he caused around me. And then after healing services at our church in the winter, Matt and I were able to start believing for his healing. We know that God wants him whole! In his state of being mentally challenged, he will never be able to do what God has for him. I became violent in my faith for him! I took a daily communion with him to believe for his healing. And in the process, my heart softened for him. And we have seen some amazing results. He now is writing letters, words and can copy sentences. This is from a boy who couldn't write one letter. His ability to understand changed dramatically. He could color in the lines...he could ride his bike (he wasn't able to turn the peddle at all up until this point). And yes, it was so helpful having school...but it wasn't that really. It was our faith for him...our believing that God can heal the unchangeable...We know believed that Caleb didn't have to live a life of being inadequate. His destiny is stretched before him...and we can see it now. And yes, we still have a long way to go...but we know that it will happen. So, my prayer for him is that he will know and serve the Lord faithfully...and this healing that is taking place will be part of his testimony for others to believe for Gods healing power for themselves! And because of what God has done, we plan on having Caleb home with us this school year...with a new heart for me for my Caleb.