Two Down, One to Go

Taylor returned from his mission in Chile on July 31st. We again had my friend, Lizzie, come to the airport to document the arrival for us and I am again absolutely thrilled with how they turned out! She is so talented and does such a good job at capturing the essence of my family.

Meghan is back, Taylor is back and Maria comes home on Friday! After a very, very long time our family is almost whole again. There are no words to describe the excitement and anticipation we are all feeling right now. 

And now, the main event (click to enlarge any of them) -

waiting, waiting, waiting....

Grandma Johnson!

I love the different expressions on my mom, dad and older sister's faces. He had just rounded the corner in this picture

Baby Grant is super delicious

All the siblings! Just missing Maria

Unsure of Uncle Taylor

Always grateful for families. Always.

Getting Me Through

Sometimes you find yourself on your knees at 2am, when you really should be sleeping; crying and praying, and praying and crying. Hopeless. Hurting.

"Trust your struggle"

 Then, a miracle. You reach into the card catalog in your brain and remember all the words of comfort that you have gathered over the course of your lifetime. Truly a miracle in this moment when you feel broken and shattered.

 "Be still my soul, the Lord is on thy side" 

 Just like that, your tears abate. You think about these phrases as they roll through your head and what they actually mean in terms of you, your life, and eternity. Fear leaves and sunlight creeps back into your soul. 

 "Look unto me in every thought; Doubt not, fear not" 

 Then you wipe your eyes and restart your prayers. Prayer of gratitude and thanksgiving. You haven't been handed a game plan or a promise for attaining all you want in life. What you have is clarity and hope. Both must be cultivated. 

 "Don't worry baby, everything will turn out all right"

The BEST Argument For Sign Language

While these both had me laughing out loud, it is also a very serious thing when you think about it in terms of how some children are raised. When you watched, you believed that's what they were actually saying, right? Think about a deaf person, constantly having to accommodate hearing people. I am sick to death of hearing, "oh he's deaf, but he can lip read, right?" WRONG. Hearing parents desperately wanting their child to be "normal" so they force them into speech therapy, deny them sign language, have surgery after surgery.

Deaf children should be raised learning their native language of sign. Period. I could say so much more on this topic but if I open that flood gate this post would turn out to be my longest ever.

 I think this world would be a much better place if we would all try to walk a mile in someone else's shoes from time to time. These videos are made for the sake of humor but they just might end up being the BEST way for those of us in the deaf community to really get through to other hearing people who can't or won't see the other side of the story.

*stepping off soapbox*

“There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, "All right, then, have it your way”

-C.S. Lewis

My Polar Life

Life has been quite interesting lately. If you haven't noticed (don't worry, I doubt anyone but my mom and her Flower Shoppe ladies have noticed) I have been seriously neglecting my blog. It's the 24th and this is my first post for the month of September - weird. 

Here's the sitch - my world is currently filled with insanely amazing successes and spectacularly astounding failures. So if you go by the law of averages then I'm good, doing well.

Regular blogging to resume shortly.